Mother snail labors for posterity in bed of mid-Cretaceous amber

摘要: Abstract When seldom life history events serendipitously get documented by exceptional preservation in the fossil record, a unique telescopic opportunity arises for interpreting fossils within their paleoenvironment as well understanding ancestral relationships of current forms. We present rare glimpse live birth terrestrial mother snail, incidentally, engulfed amber she released her young tropical forest during mid-Cretaceous (early Cenomanian). The finding featuring snail’s 99-million-year-old soft-body together with five neonate shells represents earliest known fossilized incidence viviparity snail. Based on high-resolution photographs and µCT scans, we describe snail new species cyclophoroid, Cretatortulosa gignens sp. nov. Our provides remarkable perspectives gastropod evolution 80 million years earlier than record has up to now. It shows that was already relevant reproductive strategy Cretaceous, probably increasing offspring’s survival chance predator-lurking forest.