#mammals and birds and tortoises and frogs are just heavily modified from this splayed-stance long-tail tetrapod shape

[markscherz]

Why are lizards and salamanders so similar in shape?

That’s just what peak performance looks like

#it’s also just basically the ancestral shape of the sarcopterygian fishes that we are descended from #African lungfish look so much like salamanders you’d be forgiven for confusing the two #mammals and birds and tortoises and frogs are just heavily modified from this splayed-stance long-tail tetrapod shape #snakes and caecilians are just variation on the theme of ‘how much leg is actually needed for my lifestyle’ where the answer is zero #but remember that salamanders and lizards are really only superficially similar #answers by mark #anon #anonymous