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> A new study suggests that all living snakes evolved from a handful of species that survived the giant asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs and most ot
by jjcon 5y ago
> A new study suggests that all living snakes evolved from a handful of species that survived the giant asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs and most other living things at the end of the Cretaceous.
I mean... didnt everything that is around today evolve from species that weren't wiped out?
- eesmith 5y agoI think the question is more did a "handful" of snake species survive or did "many" survive? That is, when did the diversification we see in modern snakes start? From the paper: > Historically, squamates were believed to have experienced minimal extinction at the K-Pg boundary ... So far, molecular divergence time analyses of snakes recover conflicting patterns ... Given this uncertainty, we attempted to improve our understanding of the timescale of crown snake diversification and the methodological factors that affect these inferences. ... Our results suggest a potential diversification of snakes near the time of the K-Pg transition.
- simonh 5y agoI tell my kids that if they don't give me grandchildren, they'll be breaking a 4 billion year record of 100% reproductive success. Every single one of their ancestors, back to the first DNA molecule succeeded at having offspring. Let's not break that record. No pressure.
- psychoslave 5y agoHave you tried to forbid them to have kids?
- simonh 5y agoReverse psychology works great when they're toddlers, but they soon catch on to it.
- erhk 5y agoTry telling them that youre indifferent. Maybe a lateral angle will work
- hyperpallium2 5y agoHuh! Well, I'm going to try it anyway!
- bbarnett 5y agoWhich is why reverse-reverse psychology is used.
- koolba 5y agoIt’s even more specific! You can tell a son that all their male ancestors had a son! And you can tell a daughter that all their female ancestors had a daughter! No pressure indeed!
- perpetualpatzer 5y ago> You can tell a son that all their male ancestors had a son This seems off... by counterexample, my grandfather had no sons, but three daughters (one being my mother).
- frankbreetz 5y agoYour mother is not a male ancestor. Parent was just saying there is a line of all males for men and all females for women.
- kjaftaedi 5y agoBacteria species, sure, but having full on land animals survive an event like that is worthy of note. This discovery channel video might help put things in perspective: https://youtu.be/bU1QPtOZQZU https://youtu.be/bU1QPtOZQZU