A recently published study of evolutionary chemistry in the British journal Nature Communications showed that after the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction event 66 million years ago, about 76% of the species on the earth disappeared, but the diversity of snake species quickly increased.
Although the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction event caused about 76% of the species on Earth to disappear, the species diversity of some vertebrate taxa has increased. However, the impact of this mass extinction event on snake evolution has been unclear.
Nicolas Longrich, a scientist at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom, Catherine Crane, a scientist at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany, and their colleagues reconstructed the evolutionary history of snakes by integrating the following data. The data were: the evolutionary relationships between 115 unextinated snakes, the incidence of dna mutations, and the geographical distribution of fossilized and unentinct snakes.
The researchers found that only 6 snake lineages survived the mass extinction event, but the diversity of snake species increased during the time of the mass extinction event. They also found that the snake's body size expanded after the mass extinction event, including the evolution of the African python and the Titan python.
The research team pointed out that when the mass extinction event occurred, snakes, including pythons and vipers originating in Asia, as well as snakes such as quasi-coral snakes, slender blind snakes, and blind snakes, all evolved.
The researchers concluded by saying that the snake's ability to not need to eat frequently, combined with the extinction of predators and predators after the mass extinction, may have allowed the snake to survive and the species to gradually enrich. (Reporter Zhang Mengran)
Source: Science and Technology Daily