They lost their legs first. Their back legs. They can't do anything else.
It has been 100 million years since a trio of genetic changes deprived snakes of their ability to walk.
Pan proclaims in a recent video "giving snakes their legs back", "when any other animal has deformed legs, humanity comes together to spit in God's face."
Nobody builds robot legs from snakes. Except for me. Allen Pan is a snake enthusiast.
Pan is taken from a pet shop to the house of a local snake seller to try out a fake limb for a reptile.
The science behind Pan's endeavor is a bit tongue-in- cheek.
Pan did mention a research that found that cells once destined to become a snake's two hind legs are instead used to create a penis.
Evolution works in mysterious ways despite the fact that only one is used for mating at a time.
Being smooth and slippery might have been an advantage. The fossil record can't tell scientists everything they need to know.
There is no example of a four-legged snake on the planet. In 2015, a lizard fossil was discovered.
A snake fossil has been found. It is 95 million years old and has strong back legs. The ancestors of this ancient snake and modern-day snakes probably looked like a Komodo dragon.
The idea that snakes evolved a legless form is not true. Their lifestyle could have arisen on land.
It must have been an advantage to have no legs. One theory is that the ancestors of these animals spent their lives in burrows, where they could access prey hidden in tight spaces.
Pan hoped that giving snakes back their legs would be a gift, but in the life of a serpent, having four legs is a problem.
It makes an interesting experiment.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
