Su suggerimento di @GiMa e @Fhtagn!

Robert Krulwich su National Geographic racconta la storia dei primi animali che, oltre mezzo miliardo di anni fa, svilupparono muscoli e organi adatti per potersi muovere autonomamente.

It’s an impression left by another Earthling, an odd-looking ocean dweller that lived roughly 565 million years ago and that was maybe the first creature – certainly the first we know of – to use its own muscles to move from where it was to someplace new. We call them Ediacarans, or more properly, ediacaran organisms. They’re a weird family, some flowerlike, some like little plops of mud, this one a little like a palm leaf or maybe a ribbed pancake.

Questo articolo di George Dvorsky su Gizmodo invece racconta dei fossili degli antenati dei moderni serpenti in cui appare evidente che, oltre cento milioni di anni fa, questi animali avessero delle zampe; tuttavia, sembra che non le utilizzassero per camminare.

Scientists aren’t sure if snakes evolved on land or in the water, but the recent discovery of a remarkable fossil in Brazil seemed to suggest a terrestrial origin story. Last year, a group of scientists led by Nicholas R. Longrich put out a study arguing that this snake-like creature, namedTetrapdophis amplectus, was a terrestrial animal.

 

Immagine da Wikimedia Commons