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A headless baby snake has been found perfectly preserved inside ancient amber in what is being described as an "unbelievably rare" find.

The remains of the reptile could have been frozen for almost 100 million years - from the Age of the Dinosaurs.

It is the first known baby snake fossil to ever be found and offers a fascinating glimpse into history and the Cretaceous rainforests of Myanmar, where it came from.

The animal would have become stuck in a blob of tree sap and fossilised in the amber resin where it has been preserved, along with fragments of plants and insects.

(Image: Ming Bai/Chinese Academy of Sciences)

(Image: Lida Xing/China University of Geosciences Beijing)

(Image: Yi Liu)

For years fossil hunters have been scouring mines in Myanmar, South East Asia, for treasures, including dinosaur feathers, baby birds and lizards often found in amber.

And this new find is being hailed as "spectacular" and "beyond exciting" by Michael Caldwell, a biology professor at the University of Alberta who has been researching it.

A piece of snakeskin shed by a much larger snake has also been discovered with some of its original light and dark patterning.

Together, they provide the first evidence of snakes living in forests this early in their evolution — at a time when a huge variety of dinosaurs thrived.

(Image: Ryan McKellar/Royal Saskatchewan Museum) (Image: Shenna Wang)

Often after being discovered in Myanmar, the amber is sold to Chinese collectors and museums.

And it's where it was found by Lida Xing, associate professor and paleontologist at the Beijing-based China University of Geosciences.

He was approached by an amber seller and fossil hunters who told him about their finds.

"This is a big deal," he wrote.

It's not clear whether the baby snake fossil is actually an embryo or a newborn, or whether it was a live birth or hatched from an egg.

It is being kept in Dexu Institute of Paleontology's museum in Chaozhou, China.