(T)he first study ever to analyze genes from all the living families of lizards has revealed that snakes made their debut on the land, not in the ocean. The discovery resolves a long-smoldering debate among biologists about whether snakes had a terrestrial or a marine origin roughly 150 million years ago.

Call me a geek, but I think this is really interesting. (Of course if you’re in the bothered by not enough legs as opposed to too many legs category, this is probably more disturbing than interesting.)

The paper also identifies the relationship between dachshund and snakes:

(T)he burrowing lifestyle of many other species, including legless lizards, is correlated with the complete loss of limbs or the evolution of very small limbs.