All modern snakes evolved from asteroid survivors

All modern snakes evolved from asteroid survivors
All modern snakes evolved from asteroid survivors
Anonim

About 66 million years ago, the so-called Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction occurred, which forever wiped out many animal species from the face of the Earth, including all non-avian dinosaurs. It is believed that the reason for this was the fall of a huge asteroid to Earth.

It would be logical to consider such an event a real disaster for all living things. However, life always finds its way.

The authors of the new work, published in Nature Communications, believe that the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction can be considered a form of "creative destruction" that cleared the way for the evolution of new life forms.

The researchers found that all snake species that exist today evolved from a very small population of reptiles that survived the last mass extinction.

To recreate the course of serpentine evolution, scientists used fossil data and analyzed the genetic differences between the species of snakes living today.

The authors of the work noted that many more different forms and species of reptiles began to appear at about the same time when the main population of dinosaurs died out en masse.

Scientists believe that snakes in those difficult times were saved by their ability to hide in underground holes and go without food for a long time. When the initial critical period ended, the disappearance of competitors (dinosaurs themselves and other Cretaceous snakes) allowed them to occupy new ecological niches and freely spread across all continents.

Only after this did the snakes acquire the variety of families and genera that we can observe today: over time, vipers, cobras, snakes, pythons and boas appeared. They explored more and more new habitats and types of prey.

By the way, poisonous snakes, tree and sea snakes, as well as huge species of snakes reaching ten meters in length, also appeared only after the mass extinction of most dinosaurs.

“This seems to be a common feature of evolution - it is during the periods following major extinctions that we see evolution in its most experimental and innovative form.

The destruction of biodiversity creates space for the emergence of a new one, for the colonization of new territories. As a result, life becomes even more diverse than it used to be, says study correspondent Dr. Nick Longrich of the University of Bath in the UK.

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