Tag: snakes
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34-Million-Year-Old Snake Discovered in Wyoming Changes Our Understanding of Evolution
The fossilized skeleton of the newly discovered snake species Hibernophis breithaupti, which lived 34 million years ago in what is now western Wyoming, reveals insights into the evolution and social behavior of its modern descendants. Credit: Jasmine Croghan SciTechDaily has a story about a newly discovered fossil snake species. Hibernophis breithaupti, was discovered in western Wyoming.…
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PBS Eons: How Snake Venom Sparked An Evolutionary Arms Race
PBS Eons has a new episode over on Youtube. This one is about the co-evolution of venomous snakes and the rest of the animal kingdom. For some, the rise and spread of venomous elapids was just another challenge to adapt to. For others, it was a catastrophe of almost apocalyptic proportions. And we humans are…
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Throwback Thursday #155: Diary of a Snakebite Death
This is Throwback Thursday #155. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! Ran across the interesting story of Karl Patterson Schmidt recently. Schmidt was a world renowned herpetologist and curator…
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PBS Eons: Primates vs Snakes (An Evolutionary Arms Race)
There’s a new episode of PBS Eons. This one is about the “Snake Detection Hypothesis”. The Snake Detection Hypothesis proposes that the ability to quickly spot and avoid snakes is deeply embedded in primates, including us – an evolutionary consequence of the danger snakes have posed to us over millions of years.
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PBS Eons: How a Hot Planet Created the World’s Biggest Snake
The new PBS Eons episode is about titanoboa and the world it lived in. Check it out! About 59 million years ago, the largest animal lurking in the ancient forests of Colombia by far was Titanoboa – the largest snake ever known. It’s only been in the past few years that we’ve put together…
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Cretaceous Legged Snake Fossils Shed New Light on Evolution of Modern Snake Body Plan
Sci-News has a story about the evolution of snakes. A 3-D preserved snake fossil from about 100 million years ago shows compelling clues as to the evolution of snake. This animal, called Najash rionegrina, still had legs and jugal (cheek) bones. The specimens were found in northern Patagonia, Argentina. Details can be found in a…
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AMNH: Large Sea Snakes, Giant Catfish Once Swam in the Sahara
The American Museum of Natural History has an article about how the Sahara Dessert looked before it became a dessert. The area was underwater 50-100 million years ago. Fossil evidence shows that there were giant species of catfish, sea snakes, and fishes called the area home. The details are in a paper published in the…
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Four-legged snake fossil found
CNN has an interesting video about a 110-million-year-old snake fossil. The was discovered in Brazil and dates to the Cretaceous period. Its most interesting feature… the snake had 4 legs! Scientists hope it sheds light on how and why snakes lost their legs.
