i've never researched that! to clarify, is this the sort of process things like legless lizards, caecelians and snakes go through? i love 'grass swimming' as a type.
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Yes, exactly! Those are the most known examples, and certainly the ones with the highest degree of limb minimization. The figure below shows the two “ecomorphs” (sry, not morphotypes) described in an excellent paper (cited in alt text). Caecilians are the burrowing type, for example.
Also, just to make sure: are you aware that caecilians make a milk-like substance to feed their young? It’s one of the weirdest and best facts, imo, so I’d be remiss not to bring it up.
i'm reminded of some research into size limits in dinosaurs. i read a paper which says that there are some semiarbitrary plumbing particulars (heart, respiration, and the routing of some blood vessels iirc?) which make it hard for mammals to get as large as sauropods.
Yeah, although I’m not the most up to date on dinosaur stuff, I believe the current thinking is that all dinosaurs share the more efficient breathing cycle that birds do, with unidirectional lungs, as well as a high metabolic rate, which helped some of them grow so large.
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