Encyclopedia Entry #1: Scorpion tail in Burmese Amber

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Scorpion in Burmese Amber: Museum-Grade Arachnid from the Cretaceous

This extraordinary fossil captures the unmistakable curve of a scorpion’s stinger, sealed in Burmese amber for nearly 100 million years. With its preserved cuticle and segmentation, this is a rare example of an arachnid inclusion — made even more striking by its clarity and pose.

Scorpions are infrequent in amber because they dwell primarily on the ground, where resin rarely flows. Yet this piece, sourced from the Hukawng Valley of Myanmar, offers a rare glimpse into their presence in mid-Cretaceous ecosystems. Burmese amber, dated to the Cenomanian stage (~99 million years ago), is one of the richest fossil resins in the world.

The stinger — or telson — is sharply visible, along with some basal metasomal segments. This points to an early lineage of scorpions, possibly representing a now-extinct family.

This specimen was unboxed live on TikTok and is featured in our full YouTube video, timestamped for direct access.

Specimen Info

Description

Taxon

Arachnida: Scorpiones (exact family undetermined)

Age

~99 million years (Cenomanian)

Locality

Hukawng Valley, Kachin State, Myanmar

Preservation

Isolated metasoma (tail) with visible stinger

Clarity

Excellent; stinger sharply preserved under magnification

This fossil was unboxed live on TikTok and documented in our growing Amber Encyclopedia — a project to build a permanent scientific archive of museum-grade amber inclusions from Myanmar and beyond.