Lizards Evolution From Snakes Essay, Research Paper
Many millions of years the planet was dominated by lizards great and small. It
was a place ruled by the laws of natural selection where the only way to survive
was to be able to defend yourself with what you had. It was a constant struggle
for food, shelter, and supremacy. It was about survival of the fittest, because
only if you were best suited to your environment would you have a chance at
living to reproduce. Sometimes adapting to one’s environment could create a
whole new species altogether. During the time when dinosaurs walked the earth
smaller lizards had to be creative to insure their survival. The dinosaurs,
because of their size where the bullies of the earth. If lizards wanted food
they had to some how sneak around the big dinosaurs in order to avoid becoming
food themselves. A species of lizard known as the Ear-less Monitor seemed very
well adapted to counteract this problem. Their eyes had a clear protective lens
which allowed them to go into the water in search of food and bypass the land
roaming dinosaurs all together. One major problem soon faced the Ear-less
Monitors in their quest for nourishment. It seemed that the sea dwelling
creatures had begun to catch on to the fact that these lizards were invading
their territory for food. The sea dwellers reacted by praying on the lizards who
came into the water to eat. After many deaths at sea one smart little Ear-less
Monitor decided to try another approach at obtaining food. This particular
Monitor was picked on by all of the other Monitors because he and his family had
arms and legs that were shorter and smaller than everyone else’s. The would
tease him and his family saying that their gene pool had little genetic
variation. But he did not let that get him down. He figured that with his stubby
arms and legs that he could burrow under ground to find food. He used his clear
protective lenses over his eyes to keep out dirt and rocks. He was sure that he
could find some delicious earthworms and other things to feed himself. It was
like an all you can eat buffet until all of the other short armed Monitors got
the word. The short armed Monitors lived happily under ground while the rest of
the species quickly died off. Over time genetic mutations occurred which
eventually left the Monitors with no limbs at all. They just had long slender
bodies which enabled them to burrow easily and quickly. In order to forget about
the torment that their ancestors had been subjected to by the long armed
Monitors the group decided to be known from that point on as snakes. The snakes
soon decided to give life on Earth’s surface another chance because now they
were much quicker than the dinosaurs who had devoured the Monitors. They adapted
to their new environment quickly with a leg-less mode of locomotion. Over time
they evolved and developed more defense mechanisms to become the Snakes we know
them as today. Many millions of years ago the planet was dominated by lizards
great and small. It was a place ruled by the laws of natural selection where the
only way to survive was to be able to defend yourself with what you had. It was
a constant struggle for food, shelter, and supremacy. It was about survival of
the fittest, because only if you were best suited to your environment would you
have a chance at living to reproduce. Sometimes adapting to one’s environment
could create a whole new species altogether. During the time when dinosaurs
walked the earth smaller lizards had to be creative to insure their survival.
The dinosaurs, because of their size where the bullies of the earth. If lizards
wanted food they had to some how sneak around the big dinosaurs in order to
avoid becoming food themselves. A species of lizard known as the Ear-less
Monitor seemed very well adapted to counteract this problem. Their eyes had a
clear protective lens, which allowed them to go into the water in search of food
and bypass the land. Roaming dinosaurs all together. One major problem soon
faced the Ear-less Monitors in their quest for nourishment. It seemed that the
sea dwelling creatures had begun to catch on to the fact that these lizards were
invading their territory for food. The sea dwellers reacted by praying on the
lizards who came into the water to eat. After many deaths at sea one smart
little Ear-less Monitor decided to try another approach at obtaining food. This
particular Monitor was picked on by all of the other Monitors because he and his
family had arms and legs that were shorter and smaller than everyone else’s. The
would tease him and his family saying that their gene pool had little genetic
variation. But he did not let that get him down. He figured that with his stubby
arms and legs that he could burrow under ground to find food. He used his clear
protective lenses over his eyes to keep out dirt and rocks. He was sure that he
could find some delicious earthworms and other things to feed himself. It was
like an all you can eat buffet until all of the other short armed Monitors got
the word. The short armed Monitors lived happily under ground while the rest of
the species quickly died off. Over time genetic mutations occurred which
eventually left the Monitors with no limbs at all. They just had long slender
bodies which enabled them to burrow easily and quickly. In order to forget about
the torment that their ancestors had been subjected to by the long armed
Monitors the group decided to be known from that point on as snakes. The snakes
soon decided to give life on Earth’s surface another chance because now they
were much quicker than the dinosaurs who had devoured the Monitors. They adapted
to their new environment quickly with a leg-less mode of locomotion. Over time
they evolved and developed more defense mechanisms to become the Snakes we know
them as today.