In summary, our data suggest that the axial expression patterns of Hox genes in the somitic and lateral plate mesoderm of the snake and caecilian do not induce the same downstream responses as they do in the mouse.
And so, while many ancestral features of the ‘Hox code’ are retained in the two long-bodied lineages studied here, they result in a remarkably different phenotype from what would be expected on basis of studies in other vertebrates.