The destruction of dinosaurs were good news for snakes. According to new research, the various species of snakes began to multiply shortly after the extinction of the Cretaceous – Paleogene – you know, caused by an asteroid 66 million years ago. Ateroid caused about 75% of all species, and all non-avian dinosaurs, were extinct.
But the results gave large species of snakes the opportunity and space to grow well, and they did. Currently there are about 4,000 species of long, creepless legs. In order to study the changes, a team of researchers analyzed the food of snakes that were available to see the past. “End of K-Pg, [snakes] just exploded with nature, ”Michael Grundler, co-author and postdoc researcher at UCLA, told Ars.
As a result, the ancient snake is hard to find. It is not uncommon to find a large snake because their bodies are so open and can split so quickly. “It is not really found in ancient writings. And when we look at them in old books, they’re usually just a little bit, usually not a skull, so we can’t know nature, “said Grundler. . With snakes, you have these strong, fragile bones … their skull is also mentioned freely. ”
For this reason, the sponsors of this new study used comparisons with existing species. The researchers looked at food from 882 species of live snakes – often kept in museums – and used a mathematical formula to recycle their ancestral diet. It may sound hard to learn some of the ancestors of snakes millions of years ago from this, but Grundler said, as long as we have a living knowledge of life and their evolutionary relationships, it is possible to trace their origin.
According to the example of the researchers, the most common ancestor of all snakes in existence was parasite. Before that, there may have been snakes that ate rats and other animals. After the asteroid collision, the creatures must have died, though this is not known, Grundler said. “What we find in the model seems like a good idea,” he said.
(Somewhere in the back as well one parent between snakes and other species of reptiles, but we’re discussing how it looks and how it works, he said.)
After extinction, the remaining snakes grew and varied in different species. This is because, in addition to this, a lot of corruption has been left open. Similarly, there were small opponents, like birds, to eat. But with the diversity of snakes there came a huge diversity in terms of food — sometimes eating big crazy stuff. like deer. “Modern snakes have a lot of different foods,” Grundler said. “They all changed differently from the same parent.”
The study also shows that the proliferation of different snake species slowed down the number of snake species when they settled in their new habitat. However, the species that reached new territories continued to evolve in different ways.
According to Grundler, this research could help us understand how lines respond to environmental opportunities. It also adds to the research team surrounding the natural history of the snake; another paper published in September illustrates the same point. “It also highlights the importance of our natural past and the collection of animal data in the environment,” he said.
The story first appeared Ars Technica.
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