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Researchers thought that the object inside a small piece of amber was a fragment of an ancient insect, until closer examination revealed the tell-tale scales of a lizard. The scale bar indicates 2.5 millimetres. (Dolev Fabrikant et al./Palaeontologia Electronica (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0))

Fossil hints at ancient lizard escape tactic

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.…