How Humans Overtook Snakes as The Most Successful Species
After the ‘asteroid’ slammed into the Gulf of Mexico, creating the Chicxulub crater, snakes became the most successful species.
In my previous article, I talk about snakes’ ability to live in underground burrows for long durations without water or food drastically increased their survival rate.
This was coupled with snakes’ ability to consume all animals that crossed their path. By this time most animals had been wiped out after the Chicxulub impactor ejected gigatons of dust and aerosols into the atmosphere.
The recovery of nature would be a slow process as sun rays got blocked from reaching the earth’s surface for decades.
To survive snakes had to ensure the meals consumed were effectively consumed. This meant eating everything, the hooves, bones, hair or fur, teeth, and skull. Yew! What better way to do it than swallow it whole?
30 mega annum (Ma) later, the hominin evolution would have its first divergence between cercopithecids (Old World monkeys) and hominoids (apes). This hominoid transformation gave rise to Aegyptopithecus from where the current human civilizations.
Though snakes have been useful in controlling the population of their prey, human being of them, they never presented any serious threat to human expansion.
This could be due to humans being larger prey, more intelligent, and agility on soil, grass, or water. Besides, snakes over time grew smaller and evolutionally opted for a much more flexible skull for swallowing and a flexible spine made up of many vertebrae.
Human evolution would be the unforeseen blunder which would put an end to snakes’ dominance. While snakes’ had diversified into about 4000 species, existing in different ecological niches, in the beginnings humans would prefer to specialize in one area; terrestrial dominance. The water and sky would come hundreds of thousands of years later.
Human evolution would be proof that snakes had miscalculated the need for limbs about 100–150 million years ago.
The evolutionary advantage of being legless limited to underwater (for eel-like swimming), grass, and certain ground surfaces.
While snakes overemphasized slithering for agility while preying or being preyed on, humans on the other hand would balance it out.
Human purpose had less to do with preying or avoiding predators’ hence less evolutionary focus would be put on the specialization of limbs.
This better put would require us to remember the sage advice often forgotten by Will Smith; the brain is better than the brawn. Extraordinarily, humans had opted for a bigger brain except for that guy.
Overtime would make humans more intelligent, making them shift to using tools. This would be the point where snakes would surrender Earth to humans. By now, our legless competitors had given up.
Back then, when humans were still harboring ape-like bodies, the fear of snakes would be enough to stop them in their path. Feeding grounds could be abandoned, presence of snakes would trigger immediate evacuation.
But now, armed with tools, fire, and intelligence, humans would never surrender an inch of ground to snakes. From then on whenever snakes intruded, it would be given two options; stay and die or go away as fast as you can and hide the serpent!
The presence of conflict between snakes and humans is well epitomized in many ancient fictional books. The most infamous one is the biblical story of how snakes tricked Adam into losing his creator’s favor only to be given later the dominion when his creator gave him authority to step on snakes with his feet and hit their head.
Quite graphic for such a non-combative creature.
Even today, billions would doom snakes to death, despite less than a hundred of them being injured by snakes, the majority if not all being self-defense cases.
Snakes by now have lost almost all their habitats leading to a sharp decline over the years. Those still living have to hide ‘eternally’ or risk being locked in captivity till death.
Many never saw dinosaurs, and many more might never see a free wild snake in the future.
Samson is a writer, author, poet and editor. Available for hire. Contact me at samsonexpertwriting@gmail.com or https://www.upwork.com/workwith/samsonngugi2
