Mosasaurs and "The origin of snake feeding"

[MKIRKALDY@aol.com]

This week's Nature has an article of interest:  "The origin of snake
feeding," 12 August 1999,  Nature 400, 655 - 659 (1999) © Macmillan 
Publishers Ltd.   The letter to Nature is authored by Michael S. Y. 
Lee, Gorden L. Bell, Jr. and Michael W. Caldwell.

> Snakes are renowned for their ability to engulf extremely large prey, 
> and their highly flexible skulls and extremely wide gape are among 
> the most striking adaptations found in vertebrates. However, the 
> evolutionary transition from the relatively inflexible lizard skull to the 
> highly mobile snake skull remains poorly understood, as they appear 
> to be fundamentally different and no obvious intermediate stages 
> have been identified.  Here we present evidence that mosasaurs--
> large, extinct marine lizards related to snakes--represent a crucial 
> intermediate stage. Mosasaurs, uniquely among lizards, possessed 
> long, snake-like palatal teeth for holding prey. 
<SNIP>
or should it be gulp?

Mary
mkirkaldy@aol.com