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Why did snakes lose their legs? An 80-million-year-old fossil offers clues
A pristine 80-million-year-old snake fossil from Brazil reveals the earliest snakes were underground burrowers, in a study published in Nature.
The fossil, named Tametara mirim, comes from Brazil and is the best-preserved early snake ever found. Its dense skull bones and a digitally rebuilt brain cavity both mark it as a dedicated underground burrower.
A second ancient snake, Dinilysia from Argentina, had a very different brain shaped for the surface. The study, published in Nature, suggests snake origins were not one single environment.
Why it mattersThe finding rewrites a century-old debate about snake origins and shows evolution can take multiple paths to the same body plan.
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