This lizard’s ‘great escape’ was frozen in amber for 99 million years A tiny fossil tail offers the first “irrefutable” proof of a dropped tail 19 Oct 20266:20 PM ETByRodrigo Pérez Ortega

https://www.science.org/content/article/lizard-s-great-escape-was-frozen-amber-99-million-years?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=b691f2a608-nature-briefing-daily-20261020&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-33f35e09ea-50432164 A 99-million-year-old fossilized lizard tail seems to be the oldest-known evidence of the creatures’ ability to intentionally detach their appendages. Many modern-day lizards escape from predators by shedding and leaving behind their tails as a distraction, an ability called caudal autotomy. A 3D reconstruction of the fossilized tail revealed rosette-like wedges of muscle around a clean-cut bone — characteristics similar to those of modern shed tails. Researchers had long suspected that this behaviour was ancient in origin, but had found little evidence of it in known fossils.