Delicate fossil of oldest baby snake found in amber

The sample comes from Myanmar, where amber quarries have been around for decades. Caldwell said the snake was discovered in a quarry that was only opened a couple of years ago.

Amber, fossilized tree resin, usually holds ancient bugs and beetles. This quarry, Caldwell said, has a high concentration of vertebrates.

The paleontologists’ attention was first drawn to the amber by a colleague in Saskatchewan, who was interested in what seemed to be pieces of snakeskin within it. That turned out to be true, but a little ho-hum.

“It’s kind of cool,” said Caldwell. “But you can’t tell much of a story with a piece of shed snakeskin, even if it’s got colour on it, or at least light and dark patterning.”

A couple of months later, the colleague called back.

He’d had a chance to examine the sample more closely and thought what was first identified as a centipede looked more like a snake.

The team went at it with sophisticated imaging technology from CT scans to synchrotrons. Without removing the fossil from the amber, they laid bare its smallest details.

“The beauty of this thing is that you can actually see it’s a brandnew baby snake,” Caldwell said. “It’s the interior details that make it clear.

“I’ve learned critical details about snake development.”