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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