How snakes lost their legs has been puzzling scientists since forever. But the mystery was solved when there was a discovery of a 90-million-year-old snake skull and an advanced CT scan.

The theory was that modern snakes lost their limbs when they evolved to live in the sea – much like mermaids (kidding) – but that is not quite correct. Rather, researchers at the University of Edinburgh used a CT scan to render a 3D image of the skull of a Dinilysia patagonica – a close relative of the modern snake – and compared it.

What they found was a unique structure in the inner ear that controls balance and hearing and is only shared by burrowing animals. Modern snakes that live in water don’t have it.

So actually, modern day snakes lost the advantage of legs so they could hunt and live in burrows.

The inner ears of fossils can reveal a remarkable amount of information, and are very useful when the exterior of fossils are too damaged or fragile to examine.

The study also went on to confirm that the Dinilysia patagonica was the largest burrowing snake ever, coming in at a remarkable 2 metres. So snakes evolved on land and not because of water and lost their legs approximately 128 million years ago – although they still had tiny hind legs.

But if that’s not your vibe:

Genesis 3:14 “And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:”

[source: newser]