Why are snakes sometimes born with legs if they didn't evolve from legged ancestors?

Question

Bobby Jim: LOL! Evolution has no preferred direction. It goes in whatever direction is most beneficial. In the case of snakes it was beneficial to lose their legs.

Answer 1

Obviously there's no way in which atavisms like this could exist unless the organisms evolved from ancestral species which had acquired these fully formed and functional body parts over millions of years of evolution. There's simply no way that the thousands of genes required to grow a leg could all just appear instantly and simultaneously in one organism unless they had already evolved in an ancestral species and were present but normally not expressed in the descendant species.

Answer 2

Who are we to say that they didn't come from ancestors who had legs? Dolphins are sometimes born with tiny flipper like feet along side there bodies for the same reason humans on occasion are born with tail. Though we evolve and there is plenty of evidence to support that fact, we STILL to this day habor the genes for not human-like characteristics. It's just a matter of random genes popping out of the mix. That's how evolution is in the first place, RNA didn't replicate the DNA properly and so a deformity is created... BUT, if it is successful it is bred into the species. Hince the THUMB everyone.

Answer 3

read the Bible in Genesis, where the curse was brought about after the eating of the tree... the snake was cursed to slither on the ground..meaning at one time he walked on legs it wasnt an evolution thing it was a curse...evolution is said to be better than before not taking away something good..

Answer 4

They evolved from wormlike critters.

Every species have a common collective of memories. Since some snake did grow legs and when on to be lizard sort, that memory would also be available to the developing body as it formed and could reoccur sporatically.

Answer 5

Actually according to the theory of use and disuse. Snakes did have legs only that they did not use it and their bodies thought whats the use and their descendants mutated to have no legs because they are not using it anyway. Forgot the name of the scientist.

Answer 6

I know you are not going to like this answer but it is biblical,

'So the Lord God said to the serpent, 'because you have done this, Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.' Genesis 3:14

The Bible admits that snakes once had legs.

Answer 7

This is a great one. I love the fossils that show snakes losing their legs.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/03/000317051940.htm

Read where the fossils were found.

Edit: Here is a photo of a snake with leg stubs

http://www.edwardtbabinski.us/articles/snake_vestigial_limb.html

Edit again:

More pictures for the non-believers!

http://www.creation-vs-evolution.us/visual-evolution/snake_legs/

And if you need more photos here is a google image search

http://images.google.com/images?q=snakes%20with%20legs%20fossils&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

Answer 8

They may have evolved from legged ancestors! Who says they didnt?

Answer 9

Shouldn't a snake be lower on the evolutionary chain because they don't have legs? Legs offer an advantage of speed and maneuverability

Answer 10

could be because it cross bred or even the leg gene was hidden in the dna of the mother snake or father but the leg gene grew more noticable in the baby one