A freaking snake in Burmese amber

[Halichoeres]

The first snake to be found in amber is from the mid-Cretaceous. It's named Xiaophis ("dawn snake" from Chinese "dawn" and Greek "snake"). Either an embryo or a freshly hatched neonate.

A CT scan of its vertebrae:



Open access (at least for me): http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/7/eaat5042.full

[Gwangi]

Still waiting for a pterosaur or small dinosaur. Any day now. Not that this isn't pretty awesome, and significant.

[Halichoeres]

A pterosaur would be great because it would probably be quite different from known ones, ecologically. These amber deposits are from tropical forests, but known pterosaurs tend to be from marine or freshwater sediments.

[Faelrin]

Those amber deposits just keep on giving. In hindsight that's a lot of creatures that lost their lives to sap of all things, to end up wonderfully preserved for millions of years. I really do hope we find something like a pterosaur or even more non-avian dinosaur stuff like that one that lost its tail, because sorry for that critter, but that was one heck of a neat find.

[Neosodon]

Dinosaurs tend to be a bit big for getting stuck in amber. Even a snake is pretty exiting. A dinosaur egg in amber would certainly be cool though.

[Gwangi]

Dinosaurs tend to be a bit big for getting stuck in amber. Even a snake is pretty exiting. A dinosaur egg in amber would certainly be cool though.

I don't think anyone is expecting a sauropod here, but a small maniraptoran? Sure. The fossil record has an extreme preservation bias against tropical places and small organisms so who knows what's out there. I'm imaging something like Epidexipteryx or Yi, maybe a hatchling. It will be found, sooner or later. Maybe it already has.

[SBell]

I just saw this yesterday, it's an amazing find!

[ZoPteryx]

Super cool!  The info on coloration from that skin patch was also very interesting, color pattern reminds me a bit of a Madagascan boa.  Shame the head of the neonate wasn't preserved though, would've been interesting to see its feeding adaptations.

One thing I just realized after reading this paper: Myanmar was located in the southern hemisphere down by India, Madagascar, and Australia during the Mid Cretaceous!  I had always just assumed it was near its present position.  That means all of the snakes, lizards, birds, insects, etc are representatives of a poorly known Gondwanan fauna!

Xiaophis = #6 in the star

Still waiting for a pterosaur or small dinosaur. Any day now. Not that this isn't pretty awesome, and significant.

A pterosaur would be great because it would probably be quite different from known ones, ecologically. These amber deposits are from tropical forests, but known pterosaurs tend to be from marine or freshwater sediments.

We may not have to wait much longer...
https://twitter.com/juleslhoward/status/1020207892115357697

[Ravonium]

This is one of the best non-archosaurian finds in amber yet!

I don't think anyone is expecting a sauropod here, but a small maniraptoran? Sure.

Well, if you want to get really technical here, we've already found some small maniraptorans in amber  , although I agree it would be cool to find a less derived dinosaur in amber.

One thing I just realized after reading this paper: Myanmar was located in the southern hemisphere down by India, Madagascar, and Australia during the Mid Cretaceous!  I had always just assumed it was near its present position.  That means all of the snakes, lizards, birds, insects, etc are representatives of a poorly known Gondwanan fauna!

*snip*

Interesting. The map also seems to show that Myanmar (or at least some of it) was part of an offshore island (probably in a similar vein to Madagascar now) which, for me, adds an extra realm of interest in these deposits.

It also seems to explain some of the modern geography of Myanmar (e.g. why there are mountain ranges on the border between Myanmar and India).