27 April 2006
BUENOS AIRES (UPI) — Scientists in Argentina say they have found a
snake with hips and hind legs that provides additional evidence of
descent from a land-living lizard.
Najash rionegrina lived about 90 million years ago in the late
Cretaceous, at a time when birds were evolving from dinosaurs and
the great world continent Pangaea was breaking up, researchers said.
The fossil was discovered in southern Patagonia by SebastiA n
ApesteguA a of the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences in Buenos
Aires, and Hussam Zaher of the University of Sao Paulo, The
Telegraph reported.
In an article in Nature, the scientists say that the fossil is the
most primitive snake found and demonstrates that snakes evolved on
land, disputing a theory that snakes were originally marine
creatures. The scientists told the Telegraph they believe that the
snake’s anatomy is consistent with a burrowing animal and say that
the fossil was found in rock layers that appear to be terrestrial in
origin.
Unlike modern snakes, najash had bones linking its pelvis to 3-foot-
long hind legs.
