Scientists Suggest Snakes Evolved From Land-Lubber Lizards

Ask a group of snake researchers whether our modern snakes evolved from land-loving or ocean-loving lizards, and you're likely to start a heated argument. But the days of snake-origin squabbles may be coming to a close--researchers have created the first 3-D images of snake fossils and have discovered that their legs are more akin to the legs of land-dwelling lizards than they are to the ocean-dwelling kind. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7xEMNB9-8I&feature=player_embedded The researchers studied a 95-million-year-old fossilized snake called Eupodophis descouensi that was found in present-day Lebanon. Published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the scientists used a novel 3-D imaging technique called synchrotron-radiation computed laminography: