A 99 million year old snail incredibly preserved in amber

Even 100 million years ago, snails fought their way across the Earth.

An international team is studying a remarkable juvenile snail trapped in amber. They estimate that the creature is about 99 million years old.

The shell is easy to see, but what is truly remarkable is the soft tissues preserved, including the head, tentacle and the eye contour.

"It is absolutely extraordinary that the fossil record produces such amazing conservation, which is extremely rare for any fossil of this age, especially snails and many other animals," said University paleontologist Jeffrey Stilwell. Monash in Australia.

The university calls the discovery "the first and oldest preserved soft tissue of a snail in the Middle Cretaceous fossil record of Myanmar". The Cretaceous is known for its iconic dinosaurs, including Tyrannosaurus rex.

The researchers described their findings in an article in the journal Cretaceous Research. Scientists claim that the snail could be linked to modern and fossil snails of the family Cyclophoroidea.

Stilwell says that most snails would remove their delicate parts in their shells to protect themselves when they would be threatened. The researchers suggest a possible scenario in which the resin would flow around the shell of the snail so as to prevent it from hiding inside its shell.

The snail may have suffered a tragic fate many years ago, but it is now part of a group of remarkable amber fossils dating from the same period, including check mark locked in a spider web and a nightmare arachnid with a tail.