Rare, well-preserved snake fossil offers new insight into millions of years of evolution

Paleontologists are raving over a recent discovery of a well-preserved snake fossil from the Cretaceous Period, about 75 to 85 million years ago. The recent discovery of the snake fossil known as Tametara mirim is among the best-preserved snake skeletons in the world. It was broken down using state-of-the-art techniques that combined morphological and molecular data to infer that this species is the earliest-evolving snake in the fossil record, according to research from Princeton University. The skull was the best-preserved portion of the entire fossil. Researchers at the University of Helsinki in Poland digitally reconstructed the fossil skeleton using high-resolution computed tomography (CT) scanning, which provided the skull anatomy. This includes the digital reconstruction of the snake’s brain, cranial nerves, and inner ear anatomy. This offers new insight into the evolution of early snakes over millions of years.