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The remains of a baby snake found in Amber from Myanmar are estimated to be 99 million years old. The researchers also believe they have found a piece of skin from an adult snake in a separate piece.
"This snake, named Xiaophis myanmarensis is related to snakes from Argentina, Africa, India, and Australia," says Professor Michael Caldwell of the University of Alberta.
The old embryo has been studied using CT scanners because there is more technology available to remove amber while keeping the fossil intact
. Myanmar is helping researchers better understand how snakes have changed over the millions of millions of years.
It is also the first Mesozoic serpent fossil derived from a forest ecosystem.
The snake fossil is tiny – missing a head and with about 97 bones at the very top, the tiny specimen comes out only 47.5 millimeters (1.9 inches) in length. "These new snake remains add a significant biological component to an already diverse fauna of small, rare vertebrate fossils from the amber deposits of northeastern Myanmar." Fossils of an ancient snake, Eophis underwoodi, dating back 167 million years, have been found, but they are fragmented and can offer little information.
Co-author of the study Dr. Lida Xing is a paleontologist at the University of Geosciences of China in Beijing. Caldwell said the snake was found in a mine that just opened two or three years ago
"There is a lot of new information kept in this new fossilized snake".
"That these snakes gave birth alive, which is common in modern snakes, or if they hatched eggs, is not clear". This means that snakes have already been part of more prehistoric ecosystems.
Snakes are a very successful group today. Most of the earlier snake fossils did not contain enough evidence to determine the habitat of the animal.
The creature was frozen in time for 99 million years.
"We should certainly continue to look, not only in amber but also in Mongolia, in other places that the parents of Xiaophis might have reached afterwards."
Dr. Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente of the Natural History Museum of Oxford University, which is not related to the research team gives "invaluable developmental and evolutionary data on the old serpents. "
"It is clear that this little snake lived in a wooded environment with many insects and plants, as these are kept in the clast," said Caldwell. They came to the conclusion that nearly 100 million years ago, the anatomical features of the spine of the snake have changed slightly.
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