Consider the Snake

[Remus]

I posted this on another forum a while back. Thought I'd post it here and get some different opinions.

A flying snake begins its takeoff by hanging from a branch with the front of its body forming a J-shaped loop. It then accelerates up and away from the branch, straightening the body and flattening it from head to tail end, so that the body width nearly doubles.

As the snake gains speed, it lifts its head and tail end toward the middle and undulates from side to side in a wide S shape. The snake generates lift, said Socha, although he is not certain how it's done.

"This combination of movement and postural regulation is not known to occur together in any other snake and likely requires specialized neuromuscular control," he concluded in his scientific paper.

As I see it, at least three changes had to happen here: the instinct to jump from a tree, the ability to flatten during ‘flight’, and the instinct to undulate. In what order would you guess these changes to have had to happened and how might these single changes provide an advantage?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0807_020807_flyingsnake.html
http://biomechanics.bio.uci.edu/_html/nh_biomech/flyingsnake/flyingsnake.htm

Not only can it glide, but they are able to turn!

From the tower it can travel up to 70 feet, make roughly 90-degree turns and it always seems to land unharmed.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000DD85F-9FDB-1D51-90FB809EC5880000

 

[Karl - Liberal Backslider]

What makes you think they developed consecutively?