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EPOCH TIMES (New York, New York) 20 September 06 Snake With Two Feet Appears in Shandong, China
Photo at URL below: Mr. Ma, a resident in Linyi city, Shandong province, displays the snake with two feet
China: On September 11, 2006, Mr. Ma, a resident in Linyi city, Shandong province, displayed to the public a snake with two feet.
Ma caught the snake Sept. 10. It was about one meter long, as thick as an adult's thumb, and with a triangular shaped head. The strange thing about it was, it had two, one-centimeter-long five-toed feet on each side of its body about 30 centimeters from its head.
After seeing the snake, Professor Cao Shandong from the School of Life Science Linyi Normal University said, it was a twin-spotted rat-snake, but the feet and toes were extremely unusual. Professor Cao said it could be a case of atavism.
Snake With Two Feet Appears in Shandong, China

The strange thing about it was, it had two, one-centimeter-long five-toed feet on each side of its body about 30 centimeters from its head.

The "toes" are simply scales. I don't think these things have anything to do with limbs. I would have to see an X-ray before I bought that.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

The snake could indeed be an atavism, as Professor Cao Shandong has indicated. An atavism being an organism that is a real or supposed evolutionary throwback; the unexpected appearance of primitive traits, or a reversion to or reappearance of a trait that had been present in a lineage in the past, but which had been absent in intervening generations. Atavisms occur because genes for previously existing phenotypical features are often preserved in DNA, even though the genes are not expressed in some or most of the organisms possessing them.
I do agree with you Chris, as film would give everyone a better indication of whether the features are simply scales or rudimental appendages...

Jeff
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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947