Scientists discover a 99-year-old snake trapped in an amber grave – BGR

If you were to go back in time about 100 million years, you would see many things that you can not see today. The dinosaurs roamed the country and these would have been pretty beautiful to see in person, but something that was slipping under your feet would have looked a lot like what it does today: the snake.

Now, the discovery of a snake baby in Myanmar today helps researchers better understand how snakes have changed over the millions of millions of years. The fossilized remains of the tiny snake, enclosed in amber, are believed to be about 99 million years old, and it offers a rare window in the distant past. The research was published in Science Advances .

Snakes are incredibly successful creatures. They are one of the few examples of an evolutionary lineage that has been able to withstand the worst trials the Earth has ever known, remaining largely unaffected for long periods of time. This particular specimen, nicknamed the "Dawn of Myanmar Snake", would have lived in the shady forests of the Cretaceous

It was the same period when giant beasts like Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops and Spinosaurus dominated the planet, and this newly discovered juvenile snake would have seemed incredibly small in comparison. The newborn baby is less than two inches long, which corresponds to some species of snakes that we see today, but the fossil is not completely complete.

The body of the little creature has now lost its head. Scientists are unclear as to why or how the snake was beheaded, inviting images of a dinosaur that plummeted on the snake the size of a pint while it was trying to break free. escape, but it is also likely that the remains of the snake began to fall before the sap of the trees managed to smother it.

This is the first example of a dinosaur age snake that was living clearly on the forest floor, and it is important for a number of reasons. The fact that snakes have remained essentially the same for so long means that they have to do something very well, and discovering how snakes have taken different environments allows scientists to better explain why they have challenged them. extinction again and again.