Ming BAI, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Around 100 million years ago, a baby snake hatched on a tropical island in the Indian Ocean. The tiny snake, just 10 centimetres long, got stuck in resin oozing from a tree.
That chunk of resin remained buried as the island drifted north and became part of what is now Myanmar. When it was finally dug up a few years ago, the skeletal remains were misidentified as a centipede and the amber sold to a private collector.
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But it has now been studied by an international team, who have scanned the amber to build up a 3D image of the skeleton. “The baby is unquestionably a snake,” says team member Michael Caldwell of the University of Alberta, Canada, a palaeontologist who specialises in studying ancient snakes and lizards. This would make it the first ever snake found in amber.
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Unfortunately, only around 4 cm of the back half of the snake survived, so the skull is missing. “I would die and go to heaven for that,” says Caldwell.
Ming BAI, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
The team also studied a second piece of amber that contains what they think is a piece of skin shed by a larger snake – possibly of the same species as the baby. However, in this case the team cannot be completely certain that the skin is from a snake rather than a lizard.
Snake fossils of any kind are very rare. Worldwide only around 15 fossils have been found from this period. And no snakes have ever been found in amber. “This is absolutely the first,” say Caldwell. But he is hopeful more will soon be found. In fact, other amber snake fossils might be sitting in collections already, but have yet to be identified, he says.
Most amber fossils are of insects and their ilk, but bits of dinosaurs and birds have also found. Last year another team unveiled the best preserved ancient bird ever found.
Yi LIU
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