The descendants of the surviving asteroid animals still live on Earth

British scientists from the University of Bath have found that all living snakes descended from a handful of species that

survived a collision with a giantan asteroid. It wiped out most of the dinosaurs and other living creatures at the end of the Cretaceous period. This disaster allowed the snakes to diversify into new niches previously filled by competitors. The results of the study are published in the journal Nature Communications.

The authors used fossils toanalyze the genetic differences between modern snakes and ancient species and reconstruct their evolution. As a result, scientists found that all living snakes can be traced back to a handful of species that survived an asteroid collision 66 million years ago that wiped out most of the dinosaurs.

The ability of snakes to hide underground and longtime to go without food helped them survive the aftermath of the asteroid impact. After that, the extinction of their competitors allowed snakes to occupy new niches, move to new habitats - to other continents.

Then the biodiversity of snakes began to increase.Modern snake species - including tree snakes, sea snakes, venomous vipers and cobras, as well as huge boas and pythons - appeared only after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Also, from the fossils, scientists found that the shape of the vertebrae of these animals changed after the asteroid hit the Earth.

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