PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Tchernov, Eitan
AU  - Rieppel, Olivier
AU  - Zaher, Hussam
AU  - Polcyn, Michael J.
AU  - Jacobs, Louis L.
TI  - A Fossil Snake with Limbs
AID  - 10.1126/science.287.5460.2010
DP  - 2000 Mar 17
TA  - Science
PG  - 2010--2012
VI  - 287
IP  - 5460
4099  - http://science.sciencemag.org/content/287/5460/2010.short
4100  - http://science.sciencemag.org/content/287/5460/2010.full
SO  - Science2000 Mar 17; 287
AB  - A 95-million-year-old fossil snake from the Middle East documents the most extreme hindlimb development of any known member of that group, as it preserves the tibia, fibula, tarsals, metatarsals, and phalanges. It is more complete than Pachyrhachis, a second fossil snake with hindlimbs that was recently portrayed to be basal to all other snakes. Phylogenetic analysis of the relationships of the new taxon, as well as reanalysis of Pachyrhachis, shows both to be related to macrostomatans, a group that includes relatively advanced snakes such as pythons, boas, and colubroids to the exclusion of more primitive snakes such as blindsnakes and pipesnakes.