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Four-legged Snake Fossil Discovered

机译:发现四足蛇化石

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Snakes are a remarkably diverse and successful group today, but their evolutionary origins have been obscure. The discovery of snakes with two legs had shed light on the transition from lizards to snakes, but no snake has been described till now with four limbs. The first four-legged fossil snake ever found is forcing scientists to rethink how snakes evolved from lizards. Discovered in Brazil and estimated to be 113 million years old, it is the oldest snake fossil on record and looks almost like a modern snake, except for one glaring difference; it has four limbs, each with five digits, a new study finds. The fossil snake has been dubbed Tetrapodophis amplectus (literally, four-legged snake). According to David M. Martill, a professor of palaeobiology at the University of Portsmouth in UK, who led the research, although it has four legs, T. amplectus has other features that clearly mark it as a snake. At 4-mm and 7-mm long respectively, its limbs are very small indeed. The animal probably did not use them for walking, but rather for grasping prey or for burrowing. According to the scientists, T. amplectus may be the missing link between snakes and lizards (Science 24 July 2015 | DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa9208).
机译:当今,蛇是一个非常多样化和成功的群体,但是它们的进化起源却一直默默无闻。两条腿的蛇的发现为从蜥蜴到蛇的过渡提供了线索,但是到目前为止,还没有四条蛇被描述为蛇。有史以来发现的第一条四足化石蛇正迫使科学家重新思考蛇是如何从蜥蜴进化而来的。它是在巴西发现的,估计有1.13亿年的历史,是有史以来最古老的蛇化石,除了一条明显的区别外,它几乎像一条现代蛇。一项新的研究发现,它有四个分支,每个分支有五个数字。化石蛇被称为四足蛇(Tetrapodophis amplectus)(字面意思是四足蛇)。英国朴次茅斯大学古生物学教授大卫·马蒂尔(David M. Martill)表示,尽管这项研究有四条腿,但它的四足动物T. amplectus具有明显的其他特征,将其标记为蛇。它的四肢分别长4毫米和7毫米,确实很小。动物可能没有用它们走路,而是用来抓猎物或挖洞。根据科学家的说法,三角虫可能是蛇和蜥蜴之间的缺失环节(科学,2015年7月24日| DOI:10.1126 / science.aaa9208)。

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    《Science and Culture》 |2015年第12期|376-377|共2页
  • 作者

    Biman Basu;

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