Snakes went through a massive change in their biological traits since the prehistoric era. According to a new study, the transition of evolutionary development in snakes began after the age of dinosaurs ended. The evolution of snakes was a gateway to expand their capacity on adding other co-existing species such as fish, birds, and tiny mammalian animals to their food of choice.
The quick development of the crawling reptiles had been passed down throughout the generations and was inherited by 4,000 snake lineage that still exists up to the modern age. By analyzing what the snakes eat by today's standards, the experts were able to construct a model that could describe what kind of diet their ancestors had.
Prehistoric Snakes and their Diet Changes after Creteceaous-Paleogene Mass Extinction
The mass extinction of every dinosaur species had been a topic in many studies of how it began a modified food chain across the remaining biodiversity of the planet. The wiping out of dinosaurs 66 million years ago triggered the great change in the evolution of animals that were left. Among the creatures that gained benefit from the mass extinction are snakes.
The snakes experienced the largest evolutionary burst as soon as the dinosaurs disappeared. Through the collaborative efforts of the University of Michigan and the University of California, researchers were able to identify each of the evolutionary developments that the modern snakes harnessed from their prehistoric lineage. The examination involved 882 living snake species and their corresponding diets through mathematical models. In this way, the experts have uncovered some details regarding how the diet of ancient snakes worked including their choice of food and how they consumed it.
The results showed that the majority of the prehistoric snakes were insectivores, which are species that strictly put their diet plan along with worms and insects. The dietary routine of the animals eventually changed as soon as the giant space rock hit the planet and marked the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction. Through the events that followed, snakes successfully thrived, and with the conditions from the extinction aftermath, expanded their dietary approach. Snakes added more variants of vertebrate survivors on their menu.
Snake Diet Among Impacts of Dinosaur Extinction
University of California's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology expert and lead author of the study Michael Gurndler said in a Daily Mail report that the snakes, along with other members of the global biodiversity, did not hesitate to adapt as soon as the extinction subsided and left an ecological opportunity.
The study concluded that many of the diet diversification found in snakes slowed down after the initial evolutionary explosion, but some lineage has maintained their development to proceed. The research conducted was able to determine the potentials of past devastation, such as the mass extinction, to open opportunities for an evolutionary change. In addition, the study proved that gathering data from the modern linage of species could provide a comprehensive perspective of their ancestors that existed during the prehistoric periods. The study was published in the journal PLOS Biology, titled "Rapid increase in snake dietary diversity and complexity following the end-Cretaceous mass extinction."
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