80-million-year-old snake fossil sheds light on why lizards lost their limbs and started slithering

An eighty-million-year-old snake fossil discovered in Brazil is reshaping our understanding of snake evolution, The Conversation reports. The fossil, named Tametara mirim, is one of the best-preserved early snakes ever found—with its bones still lying in their original arrangement. The creature's specialized skull structure reveals it was a head-first burrower, suggesting that early snakes lost their limbs to adapt to underground life. Digital reconstruction of its brain cavity shows further evidence: reduced visual centers perfectly suited to life in darkness. But here's where the story gets interesting. Another ancient snake fossil showed a completely different brain architecture, one adapted to surface living. This means that at the very beginning of snake history, different lineages were already evolving to occupy radically different habitats—making the story of how snakes emerged far more intricate than scientists previously believed.

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