The fossil record of squamates, encompassing both lizards and snakes, provides an intricate account of evolutionary innovation over millions of years. Fossils elucidate key morphological transitions, ...

The fossilized skeleton of the newly discovered snake species Hibernophis breithaupti, which lived 38 million years ago in what is now western Wyoming, reveals insights into the evolution and social ...

A strange little snake fossil found on England’s south coast has finally revealed its secrets—more than 40 years after it was ...

Recent study sheds new light on the enigmatic early evolution of snakes by examining an unexpected source: their brains. The results emphasise the significance of studying both the soft parts of ...

In deserts, jungles and swamps around the world, snakes are waging a biochemical war against their prey. When a snake displays its fangs, it’s showing off one of evolution’s greatest weapons. This is ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. In the humid swamps of what is now Colombia, there was once ...

The opening pages of the 1943 book The Little Prince recall how the narrator, as a child, once drew a picture not of a hat — as every adult insisted it was — but of a boa constrictor that had ...

Snakes have slithered through the planet’s history for over 160 million years, but their beginnings are still full of question marks. Scientists agree they came from lizards, but which ones? And why ...

A new species of fossil snake unearthed in Wyoming is rewriting our understanding of snake evolution. The discovery, based on four remarkably well-preserved specimens found curled together in a burrow ...