In 2015, a discovery was made that attracted the attention of the scientific world. The skeleton of a snake-like creature was found in a rock dating from the Cretaceous period (66 – 145 million years ago) in Brazil. However, there was one very important feature in the skeleton of this creature that distinguished it from the snake: Four small, immature legs.
This creature, named Tetrapodophis amplectus, was the very broken link between snakes and lizards and was thought to be a species of snake. But a recent study of the skeleton has shown that this is not the case. According to the research, this creature had nothing in common with the snake and was a species of sea lizard that lived 110 million years ago.
It has nothing to do with the snake:
Paleontologist Michael Caldwell, who took part in the research, explained that this creature was not actually a snake and was misclassified. Caldwell stated that the creature’s anatomy was similar to that of an extinct group of sea lizards known as ‘dolichosaurs’ from the Cretaceous period.
Caldwell and his team, who said that the examination in the discovery in 2015 had not been examined in detail and did not find it sufficient, decided to re-examine the skeleton. After examining the skeleton, the team discovered that the teeth were not hooked like the teeth of a snake, and the skull and skeleton were not like those of a snake. However, no large abdominal scales were found in this creature. The most important part, however, was the remains of one of the seven last meals, resembling a fishbone, in the creature’s stomach. This showed that the creature lived in water.
This new research has not put an end to the debate about the origin of the creature. As the researches of the researchers who made the discovery in 2015 and this new research entered the science literature, the result will be close. Even if the creature is not a snake, it will contribute to science as it has been tremendously preserved to this day.
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