News Headline
Research explains how snakes lost their limbs
Source
Phys.org
Publication Date
2019-02-07
Snakes and lizards are reptiles that belong to the order Squamata. They share several traits but differ in one obvious respect: Snakes do not have limbs. The two suborders diverged more than 100 million years ago. Identification of the genetic factors involved in this loss of limbs is a focus of an article titled "Phenotype loss is associated with widespread divergence of the gene regulatory landscape in evolution," published by Juliana Gusson Roscito and collaborators in Nature Communications.