What is a true-footed snake, what does a true-footed snake mean, and a true-footed snake explains

Europod snakes come from the late Cretaceous period about 92 million years ago. The snake, found near the village of Alnamora, was first mentioned in 2000. Little-known fossils of two-legged snakes are of great significance because they may hold clues to the debate over the origins of snakes. This facility on the edge of the Alps generates a high-energy light that penetrates any material, revealing its inner structure. In a program called computed tomography, hundreds of 2D images are generated and combined with a clever algorithm into a detailed 3D image.

Scientists have only a handful of specimens to shed light on the evolution from ancient lizards to modern limbless snakes. Researchers at the European Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, used X-rays to confirm that a snake with apparently one foot imprinted on a rock has another foot beneath the surface of the rock. "We are sure it has two feet, which is incredible," said Alessandra Orsay of the French Museum of Natural History in Paris. "We hope to find other features that are not seen on the other foot."

< p> Its fossils are imprinted on two inner surfaces of a thin piece of limestone that has been broken up. Part of the fossil's spine is missing, and during the preservation process, the "tail" has separated and ran next to the snake's head. But what caught the researchers' attention was that it did have feet - fibula, tibia and leg bones. The stubby lower limbs are only 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) long and are probably useless to the animal in life.

Existing evidence shows that snakes began to appear less than 150 million years ago. There are two theories about the origin of snakes. One theory is that when lizards on land began digging burrows to adapt to underground survival, their legs gradually degenerated and eventually disappeared, first the forelimbs and then the hind limbs. Another theory is that snakes evolved from marine reptiles.

Little-known fossils of two-legged snakes are of great significance because they may contain clues to resolve the debate over the origins of snakes. Osei explains: "Every detail may play a key role in determining these important relationships, which is why we have to understand them very well. I wanted to study the internal structure of different bones, and to do this you would usually use destruction There is no way you can do that if this is the only true specimen. 3D restoration technology is the only solution, and only the European Synchrotron Radiation Agency can do it. laboratory. This facility on the edge of the Alps generates a high-energy light that penetrates any material, revealing its inner structure.

In the study, the fossil snake was clamped to a ramp and spun in front of the lab's dazzling X-rays. In a program called computed tomography, hundreds of 2D images are generated and combined with a clever algorithm into a detailed 3D image. This image is then scanned onto a computer screen, providing details accurate to one millionth of a meter. Research on the eupod snakes revealed a second foot hidden in the limestone.

Paolo Tavro, a paleontologist at the European Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, said: "We can even see the ankle bones. In most cases, we can't find the toes, but that may be because they don't have Preserved or because it is a vestigial foot that does not exist at all. "To modern eyes, it seems difficult to imagine a snake with feet. But look at some of the more primitive modern snakes, like pythons and pythons, and you'll see that they have traces of their foot ancestors—little "spurs" near their tails that have now evolved to be used as pincers during sex.