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  • Writer's pictureScott M

Insects in Amber



I got some Burmese amber off ebay recently. It wasn't for a specific fossil, just a couple of random pieces of amber. I didn't have high expectations and my initial examination of the big piece didn't show anything. However with a little tinkering, I was able to find a winged ant or small wasp. It was invisible under the glare of the pencam lights. With backlighting, the fossil appears. The greenish pictures were backlit by a UV light.

Very cool.


About this amber from the seller, burmitefossil

Burmese amber from Myanmar is about 100 million years old, it comes from one of the most important periods in the evolution of life on Earth and formation of modern flora and fauna. Burmese amber is witness of the times when angiosperm plants proliferated and the World biota has changed from gymnosperm-dominated into angiosperm-dominated. Burmese amber is witness of rapid origination and radiation of modern insect groups. Burmese amber is witness of co-evolution of plants and animals, formation of new relationships between them, adaptation of insects to new host-plants, adaptation of flowering plants to new pollinators, but also to new consumers and pests. Burmese amber is witness of emergence of new relationships between insects, and between insects and other animals. Burmese amber provides not only record of the appearance of new species, genera and families, but it provides also evidence of specialized habits and habitats, life forms and palaeobehaviours, evidence of evolutionary process.




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