Chinese scientists have found a rare fossil of a lamprey eel dating from the Cretaceous period more than 100 million years ago, in north China's Inner Mongolia.

Lamprey fossil is a species which has lived on earth for more than 300 million years.

This is the first time a lamprey fossil was found in the Mesozoic stratum in Europe or Asia and in a fresh water environment, said Zhang Miman, a scientist with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

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