What initial environmental existence is suggested by the prevailing hypothesis for snake evolution leading to limb reduction?
Answer
A lineage of burrowing lizards favoring an underground existence
While popular ideas sometimes posit that snakes evolved from purely terrestrial lizards or from marine ancestors, genetic analysis and fossil records support a more nuanced origin. The prevailing scientific hypothesis suggests that the foundational evolutionary pressure favoring the initial reduction of limbs stemmed from ancestors that lived underground. This subterranean existence created selection pressures that made a serpentine, limbless morphology advantageous for movement and survival beneath the soil surface, with the subsequent loss of limbs following this underground specialization.
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