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In the context of the organic evolution, the loss of limbs in snakes is primarily explained by the phenomenon of natural selection.
Snakes are believed to have evolved from reptilian ancestors that had limbs. Over time, through the process of natural selection, snakes with reduced or no limbs had advantages in their environment, which favored their survival and reproduction. These advantages include improved maneuverability, ability to navigate tight spaces, and enhanced predatory techniques.
Natural selection is a mechanism of evolution that acts on heritable variations within a population. Individuals with traits that increase their fitness, or reproductive success, are more likely to pass on those traits to future generations. In the case of snakes, the loss of limbs conferred certain adaptive advantages, leading to the selection of limbless individuals over time.
The concepts of "use and disuse of organs" and "inheritance of acquired characters" were proposed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, an early proponent of evolutionary theory. However, these ideas have been largely discredited in modern evolutionary biology. According to the principle of natural selection, adaptive traits arise from variations in the genetic material of individuals and are passed on through genetic inheritance, rather than being acquired and inherited during an organism`s lifetime.
While adaptation to living in burrows may have played a role in the evolution of certain snake species, it is not the primary explanation for the loss of limbs in snakes. The phenomenon of natural selection, acting on genetic variations, is the most widely accepted explanation for this evolutionary change.