Regina Penland, age 8, of Burnsville, N. C., for her question:

DID SNAKES EVER HAVE LEGS?

The experts tell us that the long ago ancestors of the snakes really did have legs. They were rather stubby legs that grew out from the sides like the legs of a lizard. As a matter of fact, those snaky ancestors really were lizards. They liked to live in burrows, where legs were not very useful. So after millions of years their useless legs disappeared—and they became snakes.