The scientifically valuable fossil also highlights an ethical discussion surrounding the collection, purchase, study, and publication of amber fossils from Myanmar. “The new fossil crab in amber spectacularly bridges the gap,” Luque says.
The study team proposes that Cretapsara could represent the oldest known nonmarine crab, holding clues about how crabs made the evolutionary jump from the sea to inland environments. “Finding a crab in amber is like finding a needle in a haystack,” says Florida International University biologist Heather Bracken-Grissom, who was not involved in the new study. Paleontologists are unsure whether the new fossil represents an adult crab or a juvenile, but the crab is so well preserved that Luque and colleagues were able to determine that the creature is a new species, named Cretapsara athanata, belonging to a still-living group of crabs called Eubrachyura.Īmber is fossilized tree resin, making it all the more surprising to find a crustacean encased inside. Luque and colleagues were able to see details of the animal’s jointed legs, claws, compound eyes, and even its gills through the amber. The tiny crab’s preservation is “spectacular,” says Yale University paleontologist Javier Luque, lead author of a new study describing the specimen in the journal Science Advances. This 100-million-year-old fossil, discovered in Myanmar, is helping researchers resolve a prehistoric puzzle about when crabs started to move away from the seas. An ancient crustacean found in amber, little more than a fossilized speck, may reveal a critical point in the evolutionary history of one of Earth’s most versatile animals: crabs.
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