99-million-year-old amber shows lizards shed tails to escape danger

A fossil preserved in amber from Myanmar shows that lizards were deliberately shedding their tails to escape danger at least 99 million years ago. Using X-ray micro-computed tomography, scientists studied a detached tail from the Cretaceous Period, calling it the first direct fossil evidence of voluntary tail shedding in a vertebrate. The find sheds light on how this defence evolved.