Fossil Mystery: The Snake That Could Walk - http://clapway.com/2015/07/24/fossil-mystery-the-snake-that-could-walk468/

Snakes Today as We Know them

Today, we are surrounded by thousands of different species, and several new ones that are discovered every other day but take a while to get classified and released officially. At the moment, there are more than 3,000 species of snake, some venomous and some not.

However, what you don’t expect to make the list, even among snakes that can swim, fly, etc., is the snake that could walk.

Oh yes, on the 16th of June this year, an article was accepted for publication in the Science journal detailing the fossil that was found in Brazil. The fossil was dated to be from the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil.

The Find and the science world’s Reactions

You have to wonder when you find something like this if you are not really mistaken—maybe it could be a really long lizard. But, upon further examination, it was discovered that the remains are more serpentine the movement and body type than before. This finding suggests that snakes would have evolved not from marine creatures, but rather from burrowing ones.

A follow-up article was written with this discovery yesterday in Science mag as well. There, the writing goes into a bit more detail about the find, and how well-preserved it was for an early fossil.

However, what’s garnering attention isn’t the scientific research that’s been done thus far. No, instead it’s the past of the fossil that’s pulling in readers.

The Mysterious Circumstances of the Snake that could walk

According to the data provided by the team, the fossil came from northeastern Brazil, However, the question of when the fossil was unearthed is a pressing one, as well as how it ended up in the German museum today. Concerns such as this are important to get some sort of closure on, as in Brazil, it’s been illegal to export fossils since the forties.

However not all are concerned with the illegality of the situation. One of the authors remarked in the article that the discovery was more important, and other concerns not relevant to the study were immaterial.

So, we’ll just have to see what news the snake that could walk brings us, but also whether or not the past of its fossil is resolved.

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Fossil Mystery: The Snake That Could Walk

A New Raptor Fossil Discovered in China - http://clapway.com/2015/07/16/a-new-raptor-fossil-discovered-in-china567/

You know how the new Jurassic World film was pretty much all about the raptors in the movie? What’s not to like? They’re pretty charismatic on screen, and Blue had some awesome coloration.

Chinese raptor fossil found in Liaoning Province

Well, if you like dinosaurs, be prepared to become stoked about a real one; this new find in China of a raptor has been named the Zhenyuanlong suni. This type of raptor lived around 125 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous era.

The fossil was unearthed in the Liaoning Province, by a man named Sun Zhenyuan, who helped to get the fossil to the researchers for study. This is why fossil was named after him.

What do we know about the new raptor fossil thus far?

The research conducted on the fossil was made available today in Scientific Reports. The report was filed last year in November before it was accepted in April, then published today. There are two authors on this study; Junchang Lü and Stephen L. Brusatte.

Like many of the dinosaur fossils found in this region, this raptor is the relative of the Velociraptor we all have come to know from the Jurassic Park franchise. But it is also a feathered one as well, evident by the fossilized feathers, and research suggest it is closely related to birds given the anatomy structure of the fossil. The fossil is almost a full body skeleton.

raptor had wings?

The raptor fossil shows that it has probably around the height of a human and short appendages that looked like wings but probably couldn’t fly. There has been some joking or commentary that it basically looks like a human sized chicken or turkey, which is slightly scary if you have ever had to deal with aggressive poultry before.

One of the authors thought it was interesting to see the raptor fossil have winglike appendages without the actual intent of flying. The question then became why this dinosaur has wings, why has it evolved to have these in the first place. Other questions such as what its behavioral characteristics were begin to come to mind as well.

Only further research can be done to find out more about the fossil. That, and finding more similar fossils for further study.

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A New Raptor Fossil Discovered in China