Interesting topic: The evolution of snakes

[mudkeeper]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/03/000317051940.htm

I was reading my bio book, and wondered if there is any transitional fossils that have showed snakes came from lizards (snakes with limbs)? I mean they eventually needed to disspear.
Which made me wonder if snakes really actually evolved from lizards in the first place, but some other now extinct reptile. Since snakes are relatively new organisms in history of life.

Please add input.

 

[BIGgourami]

some boid still have vestigial legs, males use them to grasp female in courting

 

[Kioka]

The whole mossaur-varanid-serpent concept is not new. However it is becoming more progressively accepted in the paleoherpetology field. Dr. Michael Caldwell is one of the world-famous researchers that work on the evolutionary line here at the University of Alberta.

 

[SimonL]

Pachyrachis is a extinct aquatic species with legs.

 

[BIGgourami]

The whole mossaur-varanid-serpent concept is not new. However it is becoming more progressively accepted in the paleoherpetology field. Dr. Michael Caldwell is one of the world-famous researchers that work on the evolutionary line here at the University of Alberta.

much like the naked mole leggless lizard

 

[mudkeeper]

I am suprised they havent found a ancestor with larger legs, like a tetrapod shapped like an eel, or very slender monitor like creature. I can see the mosasaur idea, lol after i looked up what it was. This leads me to some questions...

The fork tongues of monitors, is this a trait thought to be aquired from an ancient reptile ancestor which also diverged into snakes. Or is this thought to be convergent evolution.