Smelling in stereo – the real reason snakes have flicking, forked tongues

(Version anglaise seulement)

par Kurt Schwenk, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut

As dinosaurs lumbered through the humid cycad forests of ancient South America 180 million years ago, primeval lizards scurried, unnoticed, beneath their feet. Perhaps to avoid being trampled by their giant kin, some of these early lizards sought refuge underground.

Here they evolved long, slender bodies and reduced limbs to negotiate the narrow nooks and crevices beneath…