Snakes had back legs for 70 million years before losing them, new fossil shows

By Ashley Strickland, CNN

Updated 2:02 PM ET, Wed November 20, 2019

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds.

Part of the scene depicted in the world's oldest cave art, which shows half-animal, half-human hybrids hunting pigs and buffalo.
Photos: Ancient finds
Part of the scene depicted in the world's oldest cave art, which shows half-animal, half-human hybrids hunting pigs and buffalo.
Hide Caption
1 of 110
An ancient Egyptian head cone was first found with the remains of a young woman buried in one of Amarna's graves.
Photos: Ancient finds
An ancient Egyptian head cone was first found with the remains of a young woman buried in one of Amarna's graves.
Hide Caption
2 of 110
A lice-like insect was trapped in amber crawling and munching on a dinosaur feather.
Photos: Ancient finds
A lice-like insect was trapped in amber crawling and munching on a dinosaur feather.
Hide Caption
3 of 110
Newly discovered penguin species Kupoupou stilwelli lived after the dinosaurs went extinct and acts as a missing link between giant extinct penguins and the modern penguins in Antarctica today.
Photos: Ancient finds
Newly discovered penguin species Kupoupou stilwelli lived after the dinosaurs went extinct and acts as a missing link between giant extinct penguins and the modern penguins in Antarctica today.
Hide Caption
4 of 110
This illustration compares the jaws and teeth of two predatory dinosaurs, Allosaurus (left) and Majungasaurus (right).
Photos: Ancient finds
This illustration compares the jaws and teeth of two predatory dinosaurs, Allosaurus (left) and Majungasaurus (right).
Hide Caption
5 of 110
This is an artist's illustration of Najash rionegrina in the dunes of the Kokorkom desert that extended across Northern Patagonia during the Late Cretaceous period. The snake is coiled around with its hindlimbs on top of the remains of a jaw bone from a small charcharodontosaurid dinosaur.
Photos: Ancient finds
This is an artist's illustration of Najash rionegrina in the dunes of the Kokorkom desert that extended across Northern Patagonia during the Late Cretaceous period. The snake is coiled around with its hindlimbs on top of the remains of a jaw bone from a small charcharodontosaurid dinosaur.
Hide Caption
6 of 110
University of South Carolina archaelogist Christopher Moore (second from right) and colleagues collect core samples from White Pond near Elgin, South Carolina, to look for evidence of an impact from an asteroid or comet that may have caused the extinction of large ice-age animals such as sabre-tooth cats and giant sloths and mastodons.
Photos: Ancient finds
University of South Carolina archaelogist Christopher Moore (second from right) and colleagues collect core samples from White Pond near Elgin, South Carolina, to look for evidence of an impact from an asteroid or comet that may have caused the extinction of large ice-age animals such as sabre-tooth cats and giant sloths and mastodons.
Hide Caption
7 of 110
Core samples from White Pond near Elgin, South Carolina, show evidence of platinum spikes and soot indicative of an impact from an asteroid or comet.
Photos: Ancient finds
Core samples from White Pond near Elgin, South Carolina, show evidence of platinum spikes and soot indicative of an impact from an asteroid or comet.
Hide Caption
8 of 110
The Sosnogorsk lagoon as it likely appeared 372 million years ago just before a deadly storm, according to an artist's rendering. The newly discovered tetrapod can be seen in the left side of the image below the surface.