EDINBURGH, Scotland, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Comparisons between modern snake skulls and the 90 million-year-old fossil suggest snakes lost their limbs in order to burrow on land.
Using CT scans to study the inner ear cavity of the fossilized Dinilysia patagonica skull, scientists at the University of Edinburgh found the structure of the canal is similar to modern burrowing serpents, but not those that live above ground or in water.