Snake with leg found in china

[jschild]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wil...na.html?reddit

Just the idea of a snake clinging to the wall with a foot, freaks me out.

[A_Train]

That is creepy as hell.

[nyys]

I don't know what's more strange. A snake with a leg, or a two headed snake attacking itself.

[jschild]

The leg is stranger - but the 2 headed snake attacking itself would be more weird.

[Mooseman]

I agree with A_train, but he's kind of cool in his own 'mutant snake' kind of way. I hearby dub him "Trogdor the Snakinator".

[RabSheila]

Man, that is weird. Maybe it's one of the X-Snakes. You know, that group of mutant snakes that banded together to defend normal snakes and mutant snakes alike. Of course if a shoe can take them out I don't have high hopes for their effectiveness.

[Xn F M]

Originally Posted by Mooseman

I agree with A_train, but he's kind of cool in his own 'mutant snake' kind of way. I hearby dub him "Trogdor the Snakinator".

I knew that snake reminded me of something.

I never knew two-headed snakes tended to attack themselves. They've had a two-headed corn snake at the zoo here for years and I've never heard of it doing anything like that.

What really sort of bothers me is that based on the story and the photo (just look at the size of the thing), a one-legged snake was a successful mutation that may have been the begining of a new species. And now it's just so much grease on the bottom of a shoe.

[jschild]

Actually, while it was a mutation, it was not a mutation forward. Snakes evolved from reptiles that had legs, so the DNA responsible is most likely still there, but is part of what is called "junk" DNA. It's how humans are sometimes born with tails, and whales are sometimes born with hind legs, and how we can, with the simple addition of a protein enable chicken to grow teeth - the DNA responsible for making those parts are still in our DNA, they are just inactive now.

That snake had a mutation that re-activated some genes that involved the creation of the leg, and it grew one.

[ABOMINATION]

Originally Posted by RabSheila

Man, that is weird. Maybe it's one of the X-Snakes. You know, that group of mutant snakes that banded together to defend normal snakes and mutant snakes alike. Of course if a shoe can take them out I don't have high hopes for their effectiveness.

I think the two headed snake was one of them Brotherhood type of guys. Just to creepy.

But yeah, that looks like a very interesting mutation. It would be interesting to see an anaconda that had 50 or so tiny legs. A centipede snake.

[mrkurtb]

Did they happen to report anything about finding a mitten near the body?

[mccombju]

This reminds me of the instances of amphibian mutations where frogs and salamanders experience mutations such as growing extra limbs, etc.

In the case of amphibians, researchers have linked the mutations to the activity of a parasite that spends part of its life cycle in snails, frogs, and herons. The mutations of the frogs increase the risk of predation by herons, helping the parasite to complete its lifecycle. The increased incidence of these mutations in frogs has been attributed to nutrient pollution from agriculture, etc. which stimulates algae growth and, in turn, boosts the snail populations which harbour the parasite in question.

Lifecycle of Parasite:

1. Parasite infects snail.

2. Parasite reproduces, creating hundreds of swimming forms of itself called cercariae.

3. Cercariae leave snail in search of tadpole.

4. Cercariae burrow into tadpole, take a dormant form inside a cyst.

5. Cercariae interfere with limb development, causing tadpole to grow into deformed frog.

6. Inside predator (e.g. heron), parasite emergees from cyst, develops into adult. It lays eggs that the predator excretes back into water.

Sources:

http://www.colorado.edu/eeb/facultys...blications.htm

http://www.colorado.edu/eeb/facultys...al.%202007.pdf

http://www.colorado.edu/eeb/facultys...%20Daphnia.pdf

http://www.colorado.edu/eeb/facultys...%20manders.pdf

http://www.colorado.edu/eeb/facultys...0al%202005.pdf

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-npd092007.php

http://articles.latimes.com/1999/apr.../mn-32639?pg=2

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In the case of our deceased one-limbed snake, I doubt that the mechanisms for mutation are similar. Nonetheless, this is an interesting mystery to be solved.

[jschild]

The situations are not exactly analogous however. Frogs already have legs naturally and multiple limbs tend to be the result of something causing genetic damage resulting in replication errors.

Snakes do not currently have limbs, so the gene responsible for limb growth (obviously inactive now), must be activated somehow. There are two main pathways for this to happen, either a protein no longer made by snakes was introduced to this snake, activating that gene, or it mutated and the gene no longer needed a protein to activate it or another gene was activated to produce said protein, resulting in the activation of that protein.

That is, in fact, how you can get chicken to grow teeth they no longer have. They no longer produce a protein needed to activate the gene responsible for the growing of teeth. If you introduce that protein in their diet, however, they will start growing teeth again.

This is only possible because they already have the genes necessary to grow teeth (though inactive) and not because they are mutating to grow fully formed teeth (mutations can work fast, but not that fast).