Tiny crustacean trapped in amber tells different story on crabs' origins

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An international team of scientists said October 22, 2021 that they’ve discovered a 100-million-year-old crab preserved in amber.

Lead author Javier Luque of Harvard University said: In a way, it’s like finding a fish in amber. Talk about wrong place, wrong time.

It’s the most complete fossilized crab ever discovered, the first crab ever found in amber from the dinosaur era and the oldest modern-looking crab ever found.

The curious little crab is no bigger than a pencil eraser. 

Scientists once thought there was a Cretaceous Crab Revolution, when crabs worldwide diversified and started leaving their marine habitats. But fossil evidence eventually showed that different crab species evolved independently as they journeyed outside their marine worlds. 

Source - https://earthsky.org/earth/100-million-year-old-crab-amber/

[Chromatislaps 34,854]

This is so cool  I hope they will be able to find more fully intact mini dinosaurs in amber. They already found a tiny lizard from 99 million years ago:

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6 hours ago, Chromatislaps said:

This is so cool  I hope they will be able to find more fully intact mini dinosaurs in amber. They already found a tiny lizard from 99 million years ago:

Interestingly I posted a thread when the amber in the first pic was discovered  (I started posting Science threads in around February/March 2020). They originally thought it was a very early dinosaur species, but later decided it was actually a lizard.

[Chromatislaps 34,854]

50 minutes ago, FfFfFfFF said:

Interestingly I posted a thread when the amber in the first pic was discovered  (I started posting Science threads in around February/March 2020). They originally thought it was a very early dinosaur species, but later decided it was actually a lizard.

the first one is a lizard indeed, the second one is a birdlike dinosaur

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1 hour ago, Chromatislaps said:

the first one is a lizard indeed, the second one is a birdlike dinosaur

For something to get trapped in amber it needs to be very small. So if an amber dinosaur truly gets discovered it be very small or only particular body parts will be found (like teguments, egg shells, feathers etc).  Either way, the distinction between dinosaurs and birds is most likely very blurry, scientists might debate if a species is dinosaur with bird features, or bird with dinosaur characteristics (or a different reptile all together..).