I, for one, welcome...
Meh
A strange fossilised snake possessing four limbs which it could use for walking or gripping things has upset the applecart in the world of palaeo-snake boffinry. The fossil in question had actually been excavated some time ago in Brazil, which had been part of the ur-continent Gondwana at the time the leggy snake was alive, …
Sure, a snake that walked, it's in the bible, book of Genesis to be more precise and it was the devil aka Satan. Unfortunately he was punished - for revealing the truth to the nudist pair- to lose its limbs ans crawl on its belly for the rest of its life, much to the amusement of Ricky Gervais.
"perhaps the most overrated poet in the English language."
Milton was good for his time. The thing is, he was the last Christian poet of any significance before it all descended into hymn-writing; from then on the best poets with the best tunes were not very orthodox. (The church has grave doubts about T S Eliot because he suddenly drags Hinduism or Buddhism into things with a definite tone of approval. Though not Islam or Judaism.)
So: overrated yes, most overrated - by whom? I'd offer Blake as the most overrated by new ageists. I'm not sure who overrates Milton these days. A few US fundamentalists?
"...he was the last Christian poet of any significance before it all descended into hymn-writing; from then on the best poets with the best tunes were not very orthodox."
I thought this would be easy to refute, but you're broadly right. Big narrative poems on religious themes die out around that time. The romantics are very unorthodox (Coleridge nearly had a career as a Unitarian minister) or are areligious. And when the Tractarians trigger a resurgence in religion, those poets who write narrative works and are deeply religious don't reimagine religious stories.
I do wonder how much this is cause and effect. What poet would retread Paradise Lost unless they had a radically new vision?
No, they are not. There are very significant physical differences between snakes and lizards, which is why a slowworm can be confidently classified as a legless lizard, not a snake. For one thing, they can blink.
Also, if you have a garden, please encourage slowworms. They keep down slugs, for one thing. Provide a warm habitat for them like a compost heap, some large stones with gaps underneath for them to hide in, and shoot any cats on sight.
"No, they are not."
Yes, they ARE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_skeleton#Vestigial_limbs
Pythons and boas have vestigial limbs in their skeleton.
And I know this because? I don't have that handle for nothing - I adore reptiles, snakes in particular. My Burmese python's pelvic spurs were very apparent...for those who bother to pay attention.
I feel hidden vestigial pelvis bones and legs are not quite the same thing.
However if your point is that this is not actually news which "upset the applecart in the world of palaeo-snake boffinry" that's obviously correct, that's just El Reg trying to make this more exciting or fit in a colourful boffin-based turn of phrase I guess.
I guess the actual 'news' is that a fossil has been found which confirms something we already assumed to be the case due to circumstantial evidence.
Boas today still have vestigial hindlimbs, or the males do, with little bones, though no hands, buried in their body wall. They do still use them for grappling with lady snakes during scaly nooky. So this is hardly unexpected. But by the sounds of it a very nice fossil example. Another gap created!
"Another thing to throw at the creationist nutters who say evolution is false!"
God put the fossil there to test the faith of the faithful and lead godless scientists into error. If your belief world is hermetic, nothing gets in or out.
Try telling a Mormon about the evidence that Joseph Smith was a common fraudster.