American and Chinese experts have discovered a crab preserved in a 100 million-year-old piece of transparent amber. Although small in size, it looks exactly like today's crab.
According to reports, the piece of amber was found in Myanmar (Burma) at the hands of various smugglers and reached China University of Geosciences, Beijing in 2015, where experts from different countries are jointly researching other similar ancient relics.
When the age of this amber was determined by various techniques, it was found that it is 100 million years old.
When the outer surface of the amber was cleaned and smoothed, a small crab appeared inside it in almost perfect condition, which looked exactly like the crabs found today.
A detailed CT scan of the crab's physical features confirmed that it was in fact a crab found 100 million years ago.
Experts have dubbed it "Cretapsara athanata" which means "the spirit of the clouds and waters of the Cretaceous".
It should be noted that 200 million year old fossils of animals like crabs have been discovered so far but they look very different from the current crabs.
In that sense, it is the oldest crab, just like the modern crab. Details of the discovery have been published online in the latest issue of the research journal Science Advances.
