At https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/10/ancient-lizard-tail-discovered-in-amber/ …. a piece of amber from Myanmar [formerly Burma] formed during the Cretaceous period, shows a defence trick that lizards still employ in the modern world. Leaving a part of the tail behind to escape a predator – or a difficult situation. Tail shedding is common amongst lizards when threatened, or frightened. The detached piece may even keep moving for a while – distracting the predator long enough for the lizard to find a place to hide.
The study is in the journal Palaeontologica Electronica. Using X-ray micro-computed tomography researchers at Tel Aviv University came up with this news. How long after the shedding did the amber embrace the tail? Scans of the amber even showed up a ridge of muscle tissue around the break, arranged in a rosette or wedge pattern. Living lizards form this structure when their muscles contract during a deliberate tail drop. They go on to say the circumstances behind its preservation are uncertain and offer a couple of possibilities. In the first one a tree lizard became stuck in the resin and escaped by dropping its tail. In the second one a predator caught the lizard but lost the tail in the struggle. What to do in an emergency – and what might explain the mystery.
At .. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-giant-jurassic-fossil-evolution-legged.html … insects belong to a broader group of six legged animals known as hexapods. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in league with the University of Valencia, examined a fossilised member of the hexapods that were found in a giant fossil bed – in NE China. Daohugou. A giant six legged bristletail.
Daohugou has produced hundreds of insect fossils. How did that happen? They are dated to the mid Jurassic period