The first thing I thought of when I heard it was the year of the snake was "how fitting, that the snake should bear its fangs to the world in its corresponding year". As noted, it is very symbolic. Significant? Perhaps not, I don't know.
irJO, I have read the wave series in its entirety (though not all the transcripts in their raw form) but I did not find the origin of of the chinese zodiac there, or in a forum search. The closest I found to the subject on the Cassiopaea forum was a transcript which alluded a vague connection between the establishment of the zodiac and the precessional cycle as well as a transcript saying that the Chinese are descended from the Scythians. Would you happen to know anything about its origins?