Museum fossil links snakes to lizards
Four-legged specimen suggests serpents evolved first on land
By Meghan Rosen
The worldwide hunt for a fossil link between snakes and lizards has succeeded — in a museum.
The fossil, of a four-legged snake, hints that the ancestors of modern-day snakes may have evolved on land rather than at sea, researchers report in the July 24 Science. It’s the first four-legged snake fossil ever discovered, bridging the gap between snakes and lizards, says paleontologist Michael Lee of the South Australian Museum and the University of Adelaide.