Snake born with hand shocks scientists.

Link to article.

Xiu Qiong Duan, 68, told the SINA Beijing news agency she woke up in the middle of the night to find the snake clinging to the wall of her bedroom.

"I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound ... at first I thought it was thieves" she said.

"I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw."

OK, that's something we don't see every day

Must be like humans born with a vestigial tail. A genetic throwback to a distant ancestor.

I don't think I've seen another one like this?

Link

Posted atleast 5 threads in last few months.

Also, it doesn't prove Macro-Evolution.

reply to post by Blaine91555


That looks weird if real , can you make the picture bigger please ?

Originally posted by CALGARIAN
Posted atleast 5 threads in last few months.

Also, it doesn't prove Macro-Evolution.

A search under the word snake nets nothing on this. Oh well.

Who said anything about macro-evolution? Please explain?

reply to post by ChristianJihad


That's the only picture available at the place I found the article. Sorry.

A slightly larger image. The best I can find.

No, it's obviously a microevolution. The snakes know that those dang Chinese will eat anything that moves and thus have developed a defense mechanism.

Chinese guy:......oh hey a snake! .........hmmmsohungry

Snake: (slaps Hungry Chinese Man Who Eats Anything that Moves with his handy new weapon) "gtfo me you brute!"

....ahem.

reply to post by Blaine91555


It actually looks liek a small snake tried to swallow a dead lizard.....

The claws of the lizard actually penetrated the snakes digestive tract and out his side... that snake is writhing in horrible aggony... not using it as an arm.

Vestigiality

Vestigial structures are often homologous to structures that are functioning normally in other species. Therefore, vestigial structures can be considered evidence for evolution, the process by which beneficial heritable traits arise in populations over an extended period of time. The existence of vestigial traits can be attributed to changes in the environment and behavior patterns of the organism in question. As the function of the trait is no longer beneficial for survival, the likelihood that future offspring will inherit the "normal" form of it decreases. In some cases the structure becomes detrimental to the organism (for example the eyes of a mole can become infected[6]). In many cases the structure is of no direct harm, yet all structures require extra energy in terms of development, maintenance, and weight, and are also a risk in terms of disease (e.g., infection, cancer), providing some selective pressure for the removal of parts that do not contribute to an organism's fitness. A structure that is not harmful will take longer to be 'phased out' than one that is. However, some vestigial structures may persist due to limitations in development, such that complete loss of the structure could not occur without major alterations of the organism's developmental pattern, and such alterations would likely produce numerous negative side-effects. The toes of many animals such as horses, which stand on a single toe, are still evident in a vestigial form and may become evident, although rarely, from time to time in individuals.

The vestigial versions of the structure can be compared to the original version of the structure in other species in order to determine the homology of a vestigial structure. Homologous structures indicate common ancestry with those organisms that have a functional version of the structure.[12] Douglas Futuyma has stated that vestigial structures make no sense without evolution, just as spelling and usage of many modern English words can only be explained by their Latin or Old Norse antecedents.[13]

Vestigial traits can still be considered adaptations. This is because an adaptation is often defined as a trait that has been favored by natural selection. Adaptations, therefore, need not be adaptive, as long as they were at some point.[14]

I think that this is what this article is talking about. Seems so to me.

Edit: Beaten by above

I have had several snakes of different kinds and remember reading something about it's bone structure.

Made a search and found this.

wiki.answers.com...

The tiny hip bones and leg bones present in some snakes are an example of?

Vestigial structures. Over time, the reptiles snakes descended from gradually began to use their legs less and less and so the limbs disappeared. The hip and leg bones present are essentially useless to the snake and are "left over" from their evolution. That is what a vestigial structure is (e.g. appendix in humans is also vestigal; we don't use it).

Originally posted by Wertdagf
reply to post by Blaine91555

 

It actually looks liek a small snake tried to swallow a dead lizard.....

The claws of the lizard actually penetrated the snakes digestive tract and out his side... that snake is writhing in horrible aggony... not using it as an arm.

Could be. It's hard to tell with these stories coming out of China. It could also be an example of what I posted about, which although rare does happen.

reply to post by Wertdagf


I was going to say something similar.

I have seen a Lion fish eat a puffer fish. Things went very wrong with that meal too. When the puffer puffed after being injested, the splines pierced the sides of the Lion fish. The lion fish miraculously survived, but had those splines protruding for months.

Looking at the snake though, it does look a little fatter in that area in comparison to the rest. My vote is it ate something that took offense to being eaten.

reply to post by Mianeye


That was the first thing I thought. I know that Whales also have the vestigial organs that were once legs.

reply to post by Wertdagf


The more I look at it, the more I think you are correct here. Good observation.

reply to post by Mianeye


There are some Ancient Egyptian stellae that depict snake dissections and skeletons as having vestigial hip joints, so clearly even way back then it was a recognisable phenomena, and equally, a point of fascination for them too.

reply to post by Biliverdin


This one though, after clearly seeing the outline of it's last meal there as was pointed out, I think is different.

I do find that interesting though. I know humans are sometimes born with vestigial tails, with attached sinew and all. I remember my Mother talking to someone about a person in our family history.

My own Sister was born with six fingers which is a genetic trait passed down from an ancestor many generations ago. Happens every other generation. I have a deformed small finger but once or twice a century someone ends up with the sixth finger. They removed hers by taking the one next to the pinkie finger and training the pinkie over as an infant. You could not tell anything was odd when she grew up. We had a copy of the xray and apparently the fingers all looked normal.

Originally posted by Blaine91555
That was the first thing I thought. I know that Whales also have the vestigial organs that were once legs.

Well, that's a bit different. Whales have flippers instead of hands/arms/claws, but what you are talking about is the bone structure of those flippers is very like the bones of a hand or claw (they look very like human hands in some species, actually). Those bones are not vestigial in the case of whales because they support the structure of the flipper.

reply to post by LifeInDeath


That makes sense. This is something I've never read much about. Thanks for the info.

The 'story' is from 2009


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