Since amber patterns were able to contain living things while forming millions of years ago, they provide us with a lot of information about what animals looked like in the distant past and about evolution in general. A new piece presents the best preserved of an ancient crab species.

An amber piece found in China excited scientists with the 2 mm crab fossil it contained. The best preserved specimen of its kind, the crab filled an unidentified millions of years of gap in the evolution of crabs.

A 100-million-year-old crab fossil trapped in amber:

Researchers at the University of Alberta, who examined the fossil, said: “This crab tells us an interesting story about the cycle in which crabs lived. Crab evolution is a hot topic; because many crab-like species have evolved independently throughout history. ”

Until now, the time when crabs left the seas as land crabs and later freshwater crabs had been dated to between 50 and 70 million years ago. These researchers, who analyzed the crab and processed the molecular records created by collecting DNA and RNA differences and similarities, determined that the separation between land and sea took place between 100 and 125 million years ago.

With the scans made on the computer, it was seen that the 100 million-year-old crab was in ‘perfect’ condition and not a single antenna was missing. The crab, which is estimated to be a juvenile and called “Cretapsara athanata”, is thought to have lived both on land and in fresh water.