A 99-million-year-old fossil snail is due to be on display at the Natural History Museum in Colmar from June 20. They will be on display along with a life-size reconstruction of one of the largest and most complete tyrannosaur skeletons, the museum confirmed. Studies have shown that it is a new species that, like the dinosaurs, comes from the Cretaceous period.
The fossil snail is 9 millimeters long, 3.1 millimeters high and was christened “Archaeocyclotus brevivillosus”. Her house, covered with short and bristly hair, is particularly striking. According to a study published in December in the scientific journal Cretaceous Research, the hairiness allowed the animals to adapt from life in the water to life on land, the museum specified.
The fossil was discovered last November in a piece of amber from Myanmar (formerly: Burma) and examined by a Franco-German research team. The snail must have gotten stuck in it at the time, explained Jean-Michel Bichain, President of the Society for Natural History and Ethnography in Colmar and co-author of the “Cretaceous Research” study.
According to Bichain, there are 30 species of snails known in Burmese amber, a fossil resin extracted from the Hukawng Valley. The fossil was discovered by an amber collector.
Report on “francebleu.fr”
