Here Lizard Lizard Essay -- essays research papers fc

How the Snake Lost Its LegsIn the article "How the Snake Lost Its Legs," Carl Zimmer wrote about the common theory of snake ontogeny is about to be questioned. All vertebrates that live on land whether mammalian or reptilian are known as tetrapods. In most animals these feet evolved into early(a) limbs, like arms for humans and into wings for birds however, the snake lost its four feet altogether. The only sign that snakes ever had four feet is a remaining hip hardened within the rib cage. Paleontologists and herpetologists alike find it difficult to retrace the ancestry of snakes. Because of their scales, eggs, and subtle features of the skull, some scientists believe that snakes are descendants of lizards. However, this still does not apologize how snakes lost their legs. In 1970, a three-foot-long creature, Pachyrachis Problematicus, was discovered near Jerusalem. A Hebrew University herpetologist studied the fossil and suggested that even though the animal looked ser pentine there was not enough evidence supporting the theory that it was related to snakes. In 1996, Michael Lee and Michael Caldwell studied the fossil more thoroughly. Lee stated that "The first thing that youve got to do is look at every possible animal it could be related to", he and Caldwell concluded that the Pachyrachis had many snake like characteristics.(Zimmer p.32) For example, "the body is long and wiggly it has 140 vertebrae in its trunk most lizards have just 25.&q...