New research debunks controversial 2015 fossil discover: It’s not a four-limbed snake in any case

In this artist's representation, <em>Tetrapodophis amplectus</em> glides through a tangle of branches from the conifer <em>Duartenia araripensis</em> that have fallen into the water, sharing this habitat with a water bug in the family <em>Belostomatidae</em> and small fish.

Enlarge / On this artist’s illustration, Tetrapodophis amplectus glides via a tangle of branches from the conifer Duartenia araripensis which have fallen into the water, sharing this habitat with a water bug within the household Belostomatidae and small fish. (credit score: Julius Csotonyi)

The invention of a uncommon Cretaceous fossil that might have been a lacking hyperlink within the evolution of contemporary snakes made headlines in 2015. It was dubbed Tetrapodophis amplectus (“four-footed serpent”) and proved controversial from the beginning, with some paleontologists questioning the interpretation that it was a protosnake. Now there may be robust proof that this latter view would be the appropriate one and that the specimen is extra possible an early sort of lizard, in keeping with a a brand new paper printed within the Journal of Systematic Paleontology.

Paleontologists have lengthy suspected that snakes developed from lizards in some unspecified time in the future within the distant previous, step by step dropping their limbs. Thus, there needs to be an evolutionary predecessor with 4 limbs. This prediction was bolstered in 2006 with the invention of a transitional snake-like fossil (Najash rionegrina) with two hind limbs courting again some 95 million years. There may be additionally an ongoing debate about whether or not snakes originated in a marine or terrestrial surroundings, and the 2006 fossil supported the latter speculation.

Then, in 2015, the College of Portsmouth’s David Martill and co-author Nicholas Longrich of the College of Bathtub printed an outline of a four-legged fossil they claimed was the primary recognized instance of a four-legged protosnake with forelimbs and hindlimbs within the fossil file. Martill had stumbled throughout the fossil on the Museum Solnhofen in Germany, half of a bigger exhibition of fossils from the Cretaceous Interval.

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