Unraveling Secrets: The Evolutionary Journey of Tametara Snakes | Science-Environment
Researchers reconstructed the snake’s brain from a preserved skull section and found skull and brain features linked to a burrowing lifestyle.
- On Wednesday, July 22, 2026, researchers published findings in the journal Nature detailing Tametara mirim, a 75-to-85-million-year-old stem snake fossil discovered in Brazil's Sao Paulo state.
- Using micro-computed tomography, paleontologists reconstructed the reptile's brain anatomy, revealing that Tametara likely led a specialized, head-first burrowing lifestyle unlike other early snakes.
- Contrasting Tametara with Dinilysia patagonica, a Cretaceous snake from Argentina, shows early lineages were not ecologically uniform; while Dinilysia possessed senses shaped for surface life, Tametara adapted for darkness underground.
- Evidence indicates snake evolution involved multiple, independent incursions into different environments rather than a single, linear trajectory, challenging assumptions about the group's early history.
- Lead author Tiago Simões, an evolutionary biology professor at Princeton University, predicted that the ancestral condition for all snakes was "a transitional one, lying in the interface of fossorial and ground-dwelling environments.
17 Articles
17 Articles
Exceptional brain and ecological diversity in the earliest snakes
Understanding the ecological origin of snakes has remained a century-old challenge1,2, hindered by an extremely sparse early fossil record and conflicting interpretations of fossil ecologies. Here we describe an exceptionally preserved Cretaceous fossil snake, Tametara mirim gen. et sp. nov., from Brazil, representing one of the earliest-diverging stem snakes. High-resolution micro-CT scans reveal unprecedented details of cranial nerves, inner e…
Did Early Snakes Burrow, Swim or Crawl? 80‑Million‑Year‑Old Fossil Suggests: All Three
Paleontologists have unearthed a remarkably preserved fossil snake in Brazil that is reshaping ideas about how the earliest snakes lived and complicating the long-running debate over whether their ancestors burrowed underground, swam in the sea or crawled the surface. The post Did Early Snakes Burrow, Swim or Crawl? 80‑Million‑Year‑Old Fossil Suggests: All Three appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.
Unraveling Secrets: The Evolutionary Journey of Tametara Snakes | Science-Environment
A remarkable fossil of the Cretaceous-period snake Tametara mirim in Brazil unveils new insights into snake evolution. Predating many modern snake species, this fossil showcases early neuroanatomical diversity and adaptation patterns. Its brain structure and fossorial tendencies highlight the complex evolution of snakes from lizard-like ancestors.
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