When most people think of snakes, they often will think of venomous snakes. After all, these are the snakes that can seriously injure or kill you with a single bite
More than 100 million years ago, the ancestors of the first snakes were small lizards that lived alongside other small, nondescript lizards in the shadow of the dinosaurs.
They hiss, they slither and unfortunately for humans and unsuspecting prey, they bite. Venomous snakes bite about 5.4 million people every year, resulting in between 81,000 and 138,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
Scientists have discovered techniques to obtain DNA samples from specimens previously thought to be near-impossible to obtain genetic data by using pickled snakes taken decades ago and housed in an underground bunker of collections.