The first snakes in the world can ever have legs

American scientists believe that the world's first snakes have small hind legs, ankles and even toes.

Snakes can once have legs

Yale University team analyzed fossils, genes and anatomy of 73 snakes and lizards, then sketched a family tree about the evolution of snakes. The results show that this animal initially evolved on land, not at sea. They originate from warm forest and environmental ecosystems on the supercontinent Laurasia, about 128 million years ago. This is the period when many species of birds and mammals appear on Earth.

Simulated snake with hind legs of Yale University scientists, USA.(Photo: Julius Csotonyi)

According to the team, snakes may have had small hind legs and sneaky predators, often attacking soft-bodied vertebrates and invertebrates. However, they have not developed the ability to capture larger prey by squeezing to death like snakes of today.

Scientists also identified at this time they were nocturnal and only changed this characteristic about 50 million years ago. "The origin of snakes is the subject of debate for a long time, but this is the first time these hypotheses have been thoroughly examined by advanced methods. By analyzing genes, fossils and the anatomy of snakes and reptiles, including alive and extinct, we reconstruct the characteristics of ancestral snakes comprehensively , "IB Times quoted the head of research Allison Hsiang as saying.

Experts around the world have made many judgments about the evolution of snakes . In a study earlier this year, a team of experts said the first four species appeared 140-160 million years ago, 70 million years earlier than the oldest samples ever found before.