Amber is a semi-precious gemstone that is fossilized tree sap that has been appreciated for its colour and beauty since antiquity. It has been used in jewelry, perfumes, and as a treatment in folk medicine for a variety of ailments. It has even been an important plot line within a successful book and movie franchise. I am sure that everyone who has read and/or watched Jurassic Park has wondered, is there any science behind this? The short answer to this would be, no, at least anytime soon. Although we have some highly advanced methods in cloning, there is no surviving DNA in the blood inside an insect within amber. (Sounds like a really weird Matryoshka doll.) No one really knows how long DNA remains; the decay of which is not an exact science although some think that a millennium is the cap and that is if it is frozen under optimal circumstances.
Amber comes is five different classes based on their chemical constituents and can contain various creatures and plants within as inclusions (def: a body or particle distinct from the substance in which it is embedded).There are deposits in many areas of the world including the Baltics, New Zealand and the Caribbean. It is formed when the tree sap (resin) undergoes huge pressures and temperatures turning it first to copal and then with further sustained heat and pressure, the terpenes are driven off resulting in amber. This may sound like an easy thing to happen because all trees have sap but this resin must be resistant to decay. It cannot be exposed to sunlight, rain, or microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and the like. All the right forces have to line up to make amber a possibility. When it does happen this glass-like material allows scientists to glimpse into the past and sometimes rethink their scientific theories.
Air bubbles trapped in amber have shown that the atmosphere in the Cretaceous period, some 67 million years ago, was much richer in oxygen than it is today. Scientists collected amber with these bubbles from 16 different sites across the world and used a quadrupole mass spectrometer to analyze them. What they found was the air contained a whopping 14% more oxygen than present times. This level gradually dropped through this period and into the Tertiary times, coinciding with the demise of the dinosaurs. This would make one think that even if some mad scientist could clone one, she probably couldn’t breathe our air.
Those huge herbivores may have been spaced out of fungal psychedelics. Palaeoclaviceps parasiticus, a fungal psychotropic comparable to ergot was found on grass that was inside amber found in Myanmar. This was the one of oldest specimens of grass found and would have been eaten by some of the largest grazers known to this planet. The question remains if this compound had an effect on them or not. Consumption of this type of substance can produce symptoms of hallucinations, balance problems, and seizures; none of which you would want a 80 tonne Argentinosaurus (one of the largest sauropods) to experience around you.
In 2005, a piece of amber from the Dominican Republic was found to have a bee coated with pollen. When the researchers did tests on this pollen they discovered it was from an orchid, making it the not only the oldest orchid known but possibly the oldest flowering plant. Scientists placed this orchid named Meliorchis caribea in one of the five subfamilies of orchids still alive today.
A discovery of a very rare skeletal remains of a hatchling snake encased in amber was made in July of 2018 in Myanmar. This was an incomplete specimen missing its head but it proves that snakes lived over a hundred million years ago in the swamps there. Scientists also discovered a shed snakeskin of a larger snake so well preserved that you can see the light and dark patterning on it. This was a huge discovery proving that snakes existed at a time when a huge variety of dinosaurs roamed the Earth. This area is of Myanmar is well known for many different specimens forever encased in their amber deposits. Some of the more interesting items found within amber include dinosaur feather, baby birds, and lizards.
If all these discoveries were not enough, it was from within amber that researchers discovered that dinosaurs had feathers and that they were more closely related to birds than to lizards as previously thought. (Remember dinosaur means terrible lizard.) This would mean that all the pictures we had of dinos with armour like covering may be completely…wrong. As you can seem amber provides a wealth of information on a previous age proving or disproving present theories. And you thought it was just a pretty bauble.
–Janice Willson
Photo Source: Mirella Liszka
