Snakes first ⁠appeared during the age of dinosaurs, but fossils of many early species are so fragmentary that scientists have had difficulty deciphering their evolution as a group. Now, a well-preserved fossil from southeastern Brazil is offering fresh insight into the history of these slithering reptiles. The fossil is of a snake called Tametara mirim that lived between 75 and 85 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period and measured about 42cm (17 inches) long. It inhabited a lush...