Feathers, flowers and baby snakes in amber

One of the most interesting experiences while travelling to new places is an immersion in their flea markets or local bazaars. I vividly recall the local markets that I have visited, from Petticoat Lane in London to Chandni Chowk in Delhi and the 'Hong Kong lane' in Pune. After a gap of over twenty years, I visited our very own Dhalgarwad in Ahmedabad recently. The hustle and energy, the bright colours, and the jostling crowds fascinated me.

Sometimes, one also discovers invaluable treasures at these places. One such instance happened in the amber market in Myanmar. Sometime in 2016, Lida Xing was wading through the 'amber market' in Myanmar. A local merchant enticed him to see some rare amber with crocodile skin trapped in it! As Dr Xing, a renowned palaeontologist from China, stared at the honey-coloured chunk of solidified tree resin or amber, his heart almost skipped a beat! What he beheld were 'diamond-shaped' scales, on a snakeskin of 99-million-year antiquity.

Dr Xing of the China University of Geosciences, Beijing was already credited with recovering a feathered Dinosaur tail and a baby bird from amber retrieved from the now famous 'Amber market'. This time, he fortuitously found the first ever snake fossil encased in amber.

Xing collaborated with Michael Caldwell, a snake palaeontologist of the University of Alberta, Canada and found out more. Incidentally, that amber chunk had only encased the lower half of the snake. This made people wrongly believe it was a millipede or a centipede. But, a closer study using sophisticated equipment such as the micro-CT scanner, a synchrotron confirmed that this was a hissing, slithering snake, that was similar to present-day pipe and grass snakes.

What was embedded in the honey coloured amber was, in fact, a baby snake! "The fossil is the first baby snake and the oldest baby snake to yet be found," said Dr. Xing. This has been christened as Xiaophis Myanmarese. Last Wednesday, they published their findings in the journal Science Advances, adding new light on the evolution and early anatomical development of snakes, and the pre-historic spread of serpents on earth.

Myanmar is now a hotspot for all these exciting discoveries of fossils in amber. A little while ago, scientists, for the first time, uncovered fossil species of flowering plants called 'asterids', in amber from Myanmar. Asteroids give us a host of today's familiar veggies and flowers like potatoes, tomatoes, petunia and, even, coffee. So, some new thrill for us as we sip our refreshing, stimulating cup of coffee!

At times like this, there is so much exciting work happening, parsing the clues and secrets of life on earth. To do so, researchers like Xing and Caldwell 'join these dots' of the discovery of the dinosaur's tail with feathers, flowers and now baby snakes to unravel the fascinating mysteries of life.

These, in turn, yield many critical clues of the jigsaw puzzle of life and its evolution on the planet, as mutations and competition led to progression into various species, some living, some extinct.

This is the Holy Grail that palaeontologists across the world are feverishly yet patiently working on. These must be exciting, fun times for palaeontologists as they carefully piece together all this evidence. Frequenting local markets to find some invaluable clues and scientific fortune trapped in chunks of amber, and simultaneously working in top class laboratories with state-of-the-art equipment, sipping and relishing coffee, of 'asterid' fossil fame and fragrance!

The most exciting mysteries are those that concern life and its evolution through varied life forms.

As scientists and palaeontologists ogle at fossils and drown themselves in their computers and microscopes, they may make some more path-breaking discoveries. Every once in a while, they may step out into amber markets and local bazaars, by choice or chance, for some fresh air, smells, sounds to give more clues to unravel the ultimate mystery of the eternal river of life. As the poet said, "men may come and men may go, but I go on forever."

The author is a Harvard-educated civil servant & writer, and has worked in the education sector
jayanti.ravi.dna@gmail.com