Snake w/ foot found?

[redpython]

only in china

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wil...-in-China.html

[lk_holla]

so bizarre! and kinda gross..

[IguanaMama]

Ack, I can't believe she killed it. What a shame.

[sg1trogdor]

sweet. must be some form of genetic defect causing the gene that signals not to grow limbs to fail. They did something like this to chickens on a discovery channel show to prove birds came from lizards/dinosaurs. they disabled the gene that stopped the production of teeth and I believe they made a chicken with scales or something. Don't remember for sure. Granted this snake is a wild animal not an experiment. Pretty interesting.

[icygirl]

sweet. must be some form of genetic defect causing the gene that signals not to grow limbs to fail. They did something like this to chickens on a discovery channel show to prove birds came from lizards/dinosaurs. they disabled the gene that stopped the production of teeth and I believe they made a chicken with scales or something. Don't remember for sure. Granted this snake is a wild animal not an experiment. Pretty interesting.

Is that really true that there's a gene for "no legs"? I thought the legs genes just decayed over time until they became unreadable.

[sg1trogdor]

Is that really true that there's a gene for "no legs"? I thought the legs genes just decayed over time until they became unreadable.

Well I am not 100% sure I am just using the info with the chickens and whatnot. The genes are all still there its just another gene was added in the dna sequence though evolution that rendered (in the case of the chickens) the gene(s) for teeth inactive. I would assume its the same for snakes and legs. I Will try to find that show so others can watch it its pretty interesting stuff.

[panthercz]

sweet. must be some form of genetic defect causing the gene that signals not to grow limbs to fail. They did something like this to chickens on a discovery channel show to prove birds came from lizards/dinosaurs. they disabled the gene that stopped the production of teeth and I believe they made a chicken with scales or something. Don't remember for sure. Granted this snake is a wild animal not an experiment. Pretty interesting.

LOL, I thought the very same thing.
Similar thing happens in humans sometimes when babies are born with vestigial tails. (Just don't let creationist know about it).

[_Venom_]

Amazing

[Brewster320]

Is that really true that there's a gene for "no legs"? I thought the legs genes just decayed over time until they became unreadable.

Thats not something I was expecting to see. Very weird and cool at the same time.

I've seen that show too on discovery. And no the genes for legs and feet are infact still there believe it or not, they are just dormant or now serve a different use. On rare occassions the genes awaken and you can get weird animals liks this. For example theres dolphins with 4 flippers, chickens with teeth, people with tails, and apparently snakes with limbs.

It is also possible to awaken the genes artificially in a lab. For example in theory scientist could turn a chicken, turkey, emu, or any other bird into something that looks like a theropod dinosaur with arms, claws, scales, teeth, tail ect. Weather that'd be a good idea is another story all together.

[redpython]

It is also possible to awaken the genes artificially in a lab. For example in theory

in theory i could poop gold bricks if i eat enough capt'n crunch, but it probably won't ever happen.

theories are not fact until they happen and haven't we learned from discovery channel/animal planet with their snake productions not to believe everything they put out there?

i am still a bit skeptical about this leg.