So this is some of my further reasoning behind the question.
So going off the position that genesis 1-11 is not to be taken literal I was wondering about something that I’ve not read or heard of yet. It was just a thought. I always hear Genesis 3 being envisioned as a serpent losing its legs and that’s why they crawl, perhaps inspired by some of the ancient Mesopotamians coming across something like the sand boa with vestigial components of being tetrapods.
But what if that’s wrong and the visual was a winged serpent. In the Bible it mentions the angelic-ish beings called seraphim. Here are sections of scripture that mention them.
Isaiah 14:29
New American Standard Bible
29 “Do not rejoice, Philistia, all of you,
Because the rod that struck you is broken;
For from the serpent’s root a viper will come out,
And its fruit will be a winged serpent.
Isaiah 6:1-3
New American Standard Bible
Isaiah’s Vision
6 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim were standing above Him, each having six wings: with two each covered his face, and with two each covered his feet, and with two each flew. 3 And one called out to another and said,
“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of armies.
The whole earth is full of His glory.”
Additionally the word means “ fiery serpent.”
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/8314.htm
So even though in genesis 3 serpent is nachash since the New Testament links Satan to potentially being the serpent in the garden and the seraphim is a winged fiery serpent , I’m wondering if in Genesis 3 the curse that left the serpent crawling was not the loss of legs but instead the visuals were of a seraphim losing its wings. Much like the images of Satan as a fallen angel wjth tattered wings.