How Lizards Evolved Into Snakes Essay Research

Paper

Lizards to Snakes

Many millions of years the planet was dominated by lizards

great and small. It was a place ruled by the laws of natural

selection where the only way to survive was to be able to defend

yourself with what you had. It was a constant struggle for food,

shelter, and supremacy. It was about survival of the fittest,

because only if you were best suited to your environment would you

have a chance at living to reproduce. Sometimes adapting to one’s

environment could create a whole new species altogether.

During the time when dinosaurs walked the earth smaller

lizards had to be creative to insure their survival. The dinosaurs,

because of their size where the bullies of the earth. If lizards

wanted food they had to some how sneak around the big dinosaurs in

order to avoid becoming food themselves. A species of lizard known

as the Ear-less Monitor seemed very well adapted to counteract this

problem. Their eyes had a clear protective lens which allowed them

to go into the water in search of food and bypass the land roaming

dinosaurs all together.

One major problem soon faced the Ear-less Monitors in their

quest for nourishment. It seemed that the sea dwelling creatures had

begun to catch on to the fact that these lizards were invading their

territory for food. The sea dwellers reacted by praying on the

lizards who came into the water to eat. After many deaths at sea one

smart little Ear-less Monitor decided to try another approach at

obtaining food. This particular Monitor was picked on by all of the

other Monitors because he and his family had arms and legs that were

shorter and smaller than everyone else’s. The would tease him and

his family saying that their gene pool had little genetic variation.

But he did not let that get him down.

He figured that with his stubby arms and legs that he could

burrow under ground to find food. He used his clear protective

lenses over his eyes to keep out dirt and rocks. He was sure that he

could find some delicious earthworms and other things to feed

himself. It was like an all you can eat buffet until all of the

other short armed Monitors got the word. The short armed Monitors

lived happily under ground while the rest of the species quickly died

off.

Over time genetic mutations occurred which eventually left

the Monitors with no limbs at all. They just had long slender bodies

which enabled them to burrow easily and quickly. In order to forget

about the torment that their ancestors had been subjected to by the

long armed Monitors the group decided to be known from that point on

as snakes. The snakes soon decided to give life on Earth’s surface

another chance because now they were much quicker than the dinosaurs who had devoured the Monitors. They adapted to their new environment quickly with a leg-less mode of locomotion. Over time they evolved and developed more defense mechanisms to become the Snakes we know them as today.

Many millions of years ago the planet was dominated by lizards great and small. It was a place ruled by the laws of natural selection where the only way to survive was to be able to defend yourself with what you had. It was a constant struggle for food, shelter, and supremacy. It was about survival of the fittest, because only if you were best suited to your environment would you have a chance at living to reproduce. Sometimes adapting to one’s environment could create a whole new species altogether.

During the time when dinosaurs walked the earth smaller lizards had to be creative to insure their survival. The dinosaurs, because of their

size where the bullies of the earth. If lizards wanted food they had

to some how sneak around the big dinosaurs in order to avoid becoming

food themselves. A species of lizard known as the Ear-less Monitor

seemed very well adapted to counteract this problem. Their eyes had a clear protective lens, which allowed them to go into the water in search of food and bypass the land. Roaming dinosaurs all together.

One major problem soon faced the Ear-less Monitors in their quest for nourishment. It seemed that the sea dwelling creatures had begun to

catch on to the fact that these lizards were invading their territory

for food. The sea dwellers reacted by praying on the lizards who came

into the water to eat. After many deaths at sea one smart little

Ear-less Monitor decided to try another approach at obtaining food.

This particular Monitor was picked on by all of the other Monitors

because he and his family had arms and legs that were shorter and

smaller than everyone else’s. The would tease him and his family

saying that their gene pool had little genetic variation. But he did not let that get him down.

He figured that with his stubby arms and legs that he could burrow

under ground to find food. He used his clear protective lenses over

his eyes to keep out dirt and rocks. He was sure that he could find

some delicious earthworms and other things to feed himself. It was

like an all you can eat buffet until all of the other short armed

Monitors got the word. The short armed Monitors lived happily under

ground while the rest of the species quickly died off.

Over time genetic mutations occurred which eventually left the Monitors with no limbs at all. They just had long slender bodies which enabled them to burrow easily and quickly. In order to forget about the torment that their ancestors had been subjected to by the long armed Monitors the group decided to be known from that point on as snakes. The snakes soon decided to give life on Earth’s surface another chance because now they were much quicker than the dinosaurs who had devoured the Monitors. They adapted to their new environment quickly with a leg-less mode of locomotion. Over time they evolved and developed more defense mechanisms to become the Snakes we know them as today.

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