Amber
5,026 Followers
Most cited papers in Amber
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and... more
For nearly 100 million years, the India subcontinent drifted from Gondwana until its collision with Asia some 50 Ma, during which time the landmass presumably evolved a highly endemic biota. Recent excavations of rich outcrops of... more
Apparently ancient DNA has been reported from amber-preserved insects many millions of years old. Rigorous attempts to reproduce these DNA sequences from amber-and copal-preserved bees and flies have failed to detect any authentic ancient... more
Studies continue to report ancient DNA sequences and viable microbial cells that are many millions of years old. In this paper we evaluate some of the most extravagant claims of geologically ancient DNA. We conclude that although... more
The presence of "geological" amber (or "succin" in old French monographs) has been reported for several centuries in the Mesozoic deposits of Provence, southeastern France. Diverse amber-bearing sites were inventoried by the authors but... more
A new Cenomanian amber-and plant-bearing deposit has been discovered at Neau, in the Mayenne department (France). The Cenomanian fossiliferous lignites are located in karst filling in a substratum of Cambrian limestones. The amber... more
"The occurrence of arthropods in amber exclusively from the Cretaceous and Cenozoic is widely regarded to be a result of the production and preservation of large amounts of tree resin beginning ca. 130 million years (Ma) ago. Abundant 230... more
The early fossilization steps of natural resins and associated terminology are a subject of constant debate. Copal and resin are archives of palaeontological and historical information, and their study is critical to the discovery of new... more
Baltic amber constitutes the largest known deposit of fossil plant resin and the richest repository of fossil insects of any age. Despite a remarkable legacy of archaeological, geochemical and palaeobiological investigation, the botanical... more
A growing body of evidence now supports the isolation of microorganisms from ancient materials. However, ques tions about the stringency of extraction methods and the genetic relatedness of isolated organisms to their closest living... more
FT-Raman spectra were collected from fossil resins originating from a variety of geographical locations. The spectral profiles of most of the fossil resins could be related to modern resins containing diterpenoid components with... more
The development of miniaturized Raman instrumentation is in demand for applications relevant to forensic, pharmaceutical and art analyses, as well as geosciences, and planetary exploration. In this study we report on evaluation of a... more
Microorganisms are the most ancient cells on this planet and they include key phyla for understanding cell evolution and Earth history, but, unfortunately, their microbial records are scarce. Here, we present a critical review of... more
A new Turonian amber occurrence, representing the oldest in situ amber locality in Australia and the southern-most locality in Gondwana, has recently been discovered in the Otway Basin of Victoria. The amber was collected from petroleum... more
Isolated conifer female reproductive structures are common fossil elements from Cenomanian (ca 99–94 Ma) charcoal- and resin-rich beds of the Tupuangi Formation, Chatham Islands, southwest Pacific Ocean. Recent findings have proposed that... more
A new amber outcrop has been found recently in a bed of lutite within the Escucha Formation near the village of Utrillas (Teruel Province), Spain. This new fossil site, which has been named San Just, contains an exceptional quantity of... more
Plasmodium dominicana n. sp. is described from Tertiary Dominican Republic amber. The description is based on oo¨cysts, sporozoites and possible microgametes and an ookinete in the body-cavity of a female Culex mosquito (Diptera:... more
Jumping bristletails (order Archaeognatha), the basalmost order of extant insects, include some of the earliest fossil records among hexapods, yet their overall geological occurrence remains sparse and has provided little insight into... more
India's unique and highly diverse biota combined with its unique geodynamical history has generated significant interest in the patterns and processes that have shaped the current distribution of India's flora and fauna and their... more
A new fossil flower preserved in amber from Miocene sediments of Simojovel de Allende, Mexico, is described and recognized as a new member of Celastraceae. This fossil flower is bisexual, with a 5-merous perianth and extrastaminal disk,... more
Insects have evolved diverse methods of camouflage that have played an important role in their evolutionary success. Debris-carrying, a behavior of actively harvesting and carrying exogenous materials, is among the most fascinating and... more
Our knowledge of Cretaceous plumage is limited by the fossil record itself: compression fossils surrounding skeletons lack the finest morphological details and seldom preserve visible traces of colour, while discoveries in amber have been... more
We describe here a co-occurrence (i.e. a syninclusion) of ants and termites in a piece of Mexican amber (Totolapa deposit, Chiapas), whose importance is two-fold. First, this finding suggests at least a middle Miocene antiquity for the... more
All entomological traps have a capturing bias, and amber, viewed as a trap, is no exception. Thus the fauna trapped in amber does not represent the total existing fauna of the former amber forest, rather the fauna living in and around the... more
Copepods are aquatic microcrustaceans and represent the most abundant metazoans on Earth, outnumbering insects and nematode worms. Their position of numerical world predominance can be attributed to three principal radiation events, i.e.... more
Representatives of chrysidid wasps are described for the first time from inclusions in Late Cretaceous Burmese amber. Five new genera and new species are described and illustrated: †Auricleptes nebulosus gen. et sp. nov., †Azanichrum... more
Amber usually contains inclusions of terrestrial and rarely limnetic organisms that were embedded in the places were they lived in the amber forests. Therefore, it has been supposed that amber could not have preserved marine organisms.... more
Fossil ticks are extremely rare and Ixodes succineus Weidner, 1964 from Eocene (ca. 44-49 Ma) Baltic amber is one of the oldest examples of a living hard tick genus (Ixodida: Ixodidae). Previous work suggested it was most closely related... more
The orb web is a spectacular evolutionary innovation that enables spiders to catch flying prey. This elegant, geometric structure is woven with silk fibers that are renowned for their superior mechanical properties. We used silk gland... more
Whether the structure of ecological communities can exhibit stability over macroevolutionary timescales has long been debated. The similarity of independently evolved Anolis lizard communities on environmentally similar Greater Antillean... more
Extraordinary preservation in amber of the Miocene termite Mastotermes electrodominicus has led to the discovery of fossil symbiotic microbes. Spirochete bacteria and wood-digesting protists were identified in the intestinal tissue of the... more
Derbachile hochae gen. et sp.n., D. aschei sp.n. and Achiderbe obrienae gen. et sp.n. from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber described in Derbachilini trib.n. are the first Mesozoic and the earliest fossil Derbidae. D. hochae sp.n., with 2.6... more
Among the many challenges in paleobiology is the inference and reconstruction of behaviors that rarely, if ever, leave a physical trace on the environment that is suitable for fossiliza-tion. Of particular significance are those behaviors... more
This paper investigates the new and hitherto unstudied boom in cross-border Burmese amber (Burmite) trade between Myanmar and Tengchong, Yunnan province. Based on interviews with amber dealers and local officials, it describes how since... more
Diverse assemblages of tanaidacean peracarid crustaceans from western Tethyan continental deposits suggest that the group was relatively common in or around ancient resin-producing forests. Here we report the results of an examination of... more