Snakes Hit an Evolutionary Jackpot, Here's Why

Bright Side

About 128 million years ago, snakes experienced a significant adaptation boom, leading them to evolve up to three times faster than lizards. Initially, when snakes first evolved from lizards over 100 million years ago, they were minor players in ecosystems dominated by dinosaurs. Fast forward to today, and there are around 4,000 snake species, ranging from massive green anacondas to tiny thread snakes. Out of the 25 groups of legless lizards, only snakes truly diversified and thrived. A recent study sheds light on the reasons behind this fascinating evolutionary success.  Credit: SNAKE SKULL: ramon.gonzalez.cabrera, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/snake-skull-prosymna-greigerti-55d3069378244aca97244f00a2f3e9f7  Animation is created by Bright Side.  #brightside   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Listen to Bright Side on:  Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/idhttps-podcasts-apple-com-podcast-bright-side/id1554898078 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/brightside/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official/ Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Snapchat - https://www.snapchat.com/p/c6a1e38a-bff1-4a40-9731-2c8234ccb19f/1866144599336960  Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me

Transcript

00:00Around 128 million years ago, give or take, snakes popped up out of nowhere and started

00:06thriving on Earth, eventually branching out into around 4,000 species we have today.

00:13But it's not just because they ditched their limbs and got all long and slithery.

00:18Even though there are 25 groups of limbless lizards, snakes are the ones who really hit

00:23the jackpot in terms of diversity.

00:25To figure out what makes snakes so successful, scientists looked at over 60,000 snake and

00:31lizard specimens from museums all over the world.

00:35According to them, snakes have been evolving faster than lizards in key ways, which gives

00:40them the upper hand when it comes to exploring new opportunities.

00:44So if you think this is creepy, hey, I'm right there with you.

00:47But let's push forward.

00:50One major factor of their success is their feeding habits.

00:53With their flexible skulls and keen sense of smell, snakes can eat animals way bigger

00:59than their heads and track down prey like champs.

01:03When dinosaurs got wiped out around 66 million years ago, snakes were ready to adapt to the

01:08changing world and fill those empty spots.

01:11We're not sure why snakes evolved so quickly, but it's clear that there's something special

01:17in the grand scheme of evolution.

01:19Just like the sudden explosion of flowering plants, these macro-evolutionary singularities

01:25have shaped life on our planet in unexpected ways.

01:29Snakes can be found almost everywhere on Earth, showing off a wide range of traits and habitats.

01:36They can be found in deserts, rainforests, grasslands, and even deep oceans.

01:41All snakes are predators, munching on different prey, including insects, small vertebrates,

01:46other snakes, and sometimes even larger mammals or humans.

01:51Ow!

01:52However, you won't see any snakes in Ireland.

01:56Why?

01:57Well, one of the most famous legends about St. Patrick involves him driving these reptiles

02:03out of Ireland.

02:04Still, experts think snakes never lived in Ireland to begin with, so it's more of a

02:08symbolic story than anything else.

02:11There are a few more places in the world where snakes don't exist, like Iceland, Greenland,

02:16New Zealand, and Antarctica.

02:18New Zealand's lack of snakes is especially intriguing, considering its proximity to snake-heavy

02:24Australia.

02:25The reason for this seems to be the country's ever-changing climate, which makes it difficult

02:30for snakes to thrive.

02:32Even though New Zealand is snake-free, sea snakes occasionally make an appearance in

02:37its waters.

02:38The yellow-bellied sea snake and the yellow-lipped sea krait are known to visit the island every

02:44now and then.

02:48So when it comes to what country has the most snakes, Brazil takes the prize.

02:53With over 375 species calling it home, Brazil has a mix of harmless and dangerous snakes.

03:01The country's vast rainforests provide a perfect habitat for these reptiles, including

03:06famous constrictors like the anaconda, the boa constrictor, and the emerald tree boa.

03:12Brazil is also home to venomous snakes, such as the fer-de-lans and coral snakes.

03:18However, if you fear going to a Rio carnival just because you're terrified of Brazilian

03:23snakes, I've got some news for you.

03:25Out of 4,000 snake species in the world, only around 600 are venomous, and only about 200

03:32of them can cause harm to humans.

03:34So fatal snake bites are less common than people might think.

03:38Chances you stumble upon a bad snake are like 5%.

03:42Now it's hard to say exactly how many individual snakes there are out there, as they tend to

03:48keep to themselves.

03:50However, scientists can make estimates about the number of specific species.

03:55For example, they believe that there could be as many as 1 million common garter snakes

04:00in the wild.

04:01Cute little guys!

04:04Unlike the super widespread common garter, the St. Lucia racer is one of the rarest snakes

04:09in the world.

04:10It had quite a rollercoaster of a story, thought to be extinct, then found again, then lost,

04:16and finally rediscovered in 2012.

04:19The survivors are spending time together on a teeny island called Maria Major after being

04:25wiped out on the mainland by mongooses and other invasive critters that like to snack

04:30on these harmless snakes.

04:32Another reason snakes hit an evolutionary jackpot is because they have this cool thing

04:37that they're basically solar-powered and depend on outside sources of heat or light.

04:42People often say they're cold-blooded, but that's not entirely accurate.

04:46Their blood isn't cold.

04:48The right word for them is ectothermic, which means their body temperature can change and

04:53is controlled by the environment.

04:55While mammals and birds can keep their temperature steady, reptiles must soak up the sun or find

05:01other ways to warm themselves up.

05:05Some snakes do not lay eggs, defying the traditional classification of reptiles as egg-layers.

05:12While it may have been taught at school that all reptiles lay eggs, nature has its exceptions.

05:18About 70% of snakes lay eggs, but those living in colder environments give birth to live

05:24young because eggs would not survive in such conditions.

05:28Nature always has a way of challenging our expectations and classifications.

05:33Snakes are a successful group of tetrapods, even though they don't have the four-key

05:38footed feature that tetrapods are named after.

05:41Despite this, or maybe because of it, snakes are super diverse.

05:46It might seem like this diversity dates way back to the times of dinosaurs, over 100 million

05:52years ago.

05:53But modern snakes seem to have emerged more recently.

05:57Examples in DNA suggest that snakes started to spread out and evolved after the mass extinction

06:03event that wiped out dinosaurs.

06:06They took advantage of the empty habitats and niches left behind by the long-gone species.

06:12In terms of movement, snakes are super flexible and can crawl, burrow, climb, swim, and some

06:18can even fly!

06:20The ancient ancestors of snakes were quite different from what we see today, with some

06:25species even having well-developed limbs.

06:29Snakes continued to evolve through the late Cretaceous period, with various species appearing

06:33around the world.

06:35Only a handful of modern snake families emerged later, millions of years after the extinction

06:40of dinosaurs.

06:42The snake fossil record is patchy, making it hard to piece together their evolutionary

06:47history.

06:48To make sense of it all, scientists turned to DNA analysis.

06:53Their clock techniques help estimate when various snake lineages split off from each

06:58other, suggesting that most of the modern snake diversity is younger than dinosaurs.

07:04Only a few snake lineages survived the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous.

07:10But these few survivors managed to give rise to the incredible diversity of snakes today.

07:16Some snake families persisted for millions of years until they eventually went extinct,

07:21while others thrived and diversified in the aftermath of the mass extinction event.

07:26This pattern of survival and rapid diversification resembles what we see in the bird and mammal

07:32fossil records after the extinction of dinosaurs.

07:36The ability to burrow, hunt in the dark, and go long periods without food helped some snakes

07:41survive the chaos after the mass extinction.

07:44Their flexibility and adaptability allowed them to find shelter and thrive when other

07:49species couldn't.

07:52Snakes can be some of the scariest animals around.

07:56Most snake species are harmless and don't bother humans.

07:59Even if they wanted to, most snakes are too small to pose a real threat to people.

08:04But there are some big snakes out there that can eat surprising things.

08:09The largest animal ever eaten by a snake was a 150-pound hyena devoured by an African rock

08:16python.

08:17Bet that hyena wasn't laughing then, huh?

08:20Before that, the biggest meal on record was a 130-pound impala eaten by a rock python.

08:26That's impressive.

08:28The biggest snakes in the world are constrictors.

08:31They tend to suffocate their prey.

08:33To eat large prey, the snake itself has to be huge.

08:37African rock pythons, green anacondas, reticulated pythons, Burmese pythons, Indian pythons,

08:44and amethystine pythons are all contenders for the title of the largest snake in the

08:49world.

08:50They can grow to incredible lengths and weights.

08:53And that's it.

08:54I'm done with snakes now.

08:56Ew.

08:58That's it for today!

08:59So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your

09:03friends!

09:04Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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