Why Did Snakes Lose Their Legs? Animal Mysteries

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorScientists are still asking why snakes lost their legs, and it's one of ten animal mysteries the New York Times lists among more than one and a half million known species.

2. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorAnd there's a detail I love: some pythons and boas still have tiny leg bones inside their bodies, Yale e360 says.

3. 

   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorInside? So where are the legs, exactly? Does the snake know?

4. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorChip, that is the perfect moment to open our award ceremony, so please rise.

5. 

   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorOur Animal of the Day is the snake, officially titled Most Streamlined Executive in the History of Walking.

6. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorCareer stats: legs lost, all of them, mostly. Leg bones retained, a few. Steps taken since, zero, and not one complaint.

7. 

   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorTwo research teams reported on it separately, in Current Biology and in Cell. It took two whole journals to explain one missing leg.

8. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorI'm getting emotional.

9. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorThe snake didn't lose its legs, it made a bold, forward-looking decision to go ground-level, and it kept the bones for the archive.

10. 

    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorThank you, snake, for everything you've done without moving a single foot. And for never asking for the legs back.