New blind snake discovery
Jeremy Hancemongabay.com
April 06, 2010
World-traveling blindsnake points to Madagascar's origins and great voyages across the Atlantic.
"Blindsnakes are not very pretty, are rarely noticed, and are often mistaken for earthworms," says Blair Hedges of her subjects. "Nonetheless, they tell a very interesting evolutionary story."
Hedges, professor of biology at Penn State University, was a lead author of the study, which looked at the evolution of blindsnakes by examining the genetics of 96 blindsnake species of some 260 known species. Blindsnakes are burrowing worm-like snakes that despite being largely-unknown to the public and long-ignored by scientists, occur on every continent except Antarctica. Feeding on ants and termites, blindsnakes are not actually blind, but simply have poor vision likely due to their underground lifestyle. However, researchers were puzzled by how these underground snakes have popped up in so many locations.
 Blindsnakes look resemble worms. Photo by: Frank Glaw. |
According to the research, blindsnakes first evolved on Gondwana, the ancient southern supercontinent. Continental splits beginning around 155 million years ago fractured blindsnakes populations. For example, at one point a landmass broke off of East Gondwana that incorporated both India and Madagascar. Around 94 million years ago, that land mass broke up and Madagascar drifted to its current position off the coast of East Africa while India eventually collided with Asia. Researchers now know that a population of ancient Gondwanan blindsnakes eventually drifted on Madagascar to its present location.
Due to nearly a hundred million years of isolation, Madagascar has evolved some truly bizarre species—such as the long-fingered aye-aye or the lemur-hunting fossa—that live nowhere else. In fact, even 90 percent of Madagascar's plants are endemic. The blindsnakes that live on Madagascar—after millions of years of independent evolution—are also unique enough for the researchers to have dubbed them their own family.
 Head of a Typhlops blindsnake from India. Photo by: AshLin. |
"Some scientists have argued that oceanic dispersal is an unlikely way for burrowing organisms to become distributed around the world," observes Hedges. "Our data now reinforce the message that such 'unlikely' events nonetheless happened in evolutionary history."
Eventually, blindsnakes reached their last continent, Australia, around 28 million years ago. Lacking any land route, the researchers believe the blindsnakes made a second oceanic crossing on floating vegetation to reach the southerly continent.
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