10 Findings in Amber that shape our view on prehistory
A long long time ago, in a galaxy far... Well, not that far away actually. Prehistoric trees were pouring out resin that would grab anything it touched and encased it in a protective layer. This resin-turned-gemstone is an amazing preservative that allows us to peer into prehistoric times. Everything that gets captured in this world's first “nature camera” gets preserved incredibly well, and allows us to get a better understanding of the past.
10. Not quite the Jurassic World
Scientists have recently pooled their resources and tried to extract ancient bee DNA from copal (a baby amber). However, after countless of tries and having exhausted all the available technology, it has become certain that we won’t be having miniature brontosauruses running around in our backyards anytime soon. At least not the Jurrasic Park way - from a blood-gorged mosquito in amber.
It has become clear that the problem was that no DNA actually survived within the copal. And no DNA means no dinosaurs. And if it can’t survive in copal - which is between 60 to 10,000 years old - then there's virtually no chance it remains intact in amber, which is millions of years older.
The lifetime of DNA still remains an unknown variable to scientists. The speed at which DNA decays is still not a precise science. The approximate lifetime of DNA, scientists say, is about a millennium - if frozen perfectly.
A recently found piece of amber put under a CT scan has shown something quite bizarre. An adult mayfly that was trapped inside the amber had a tiny springtail riding piggyback on the mayfly. The 16-million-year-old, yet somewhat childish pair is the first proof of different species interacting in such a way.
Putting together nearly 3000 x-rays, scientists managed to create a 3D replica picture of the two animals. This allowed scientists to observe this previously unknown behaviour in better detail. By dissecting the digital version of the picture it has become clear that the springtail was trying to jump away just as the resin engulfed both it and the mayfly.
While we probably still have springtails riding mayflies today, this phenomenon is difficult to observe as the springtails are so hard to pin down.
It’s not only animals and flora that get trapped in the amber. The air does too. Bubbles trapped in amber have provided scientists with an interesting piece of trivia. The amber prospects collected from 16 different mines across the world had their bubbles inspected with a quadrupole mass spectrometer, which suggested that the air that the dinosaurs snorted in was much richer in oxygen compared to today’s atmosphere.
In the Cretaceous period, 67 million years ago, creatures had the chance to enjoy 14% more oxygen in the air than we do. When air was studied in younger amber, the oxygen levels tend to drop from the late Cretaceous to early Tertiary times - almost in the same downward curve that follows the demise of dinosaurs. It is quite possible that in order for dinosaurs to sustain life, an oxygen rich atmosphere was a necessity. Especially for the ones that weighed more than a house.
Herbivore dinos might have been even more “rad” than we thought. They would often “get high” on a psychotropic fungus, called Palaeoclaviceps parasiticus, which is comparable to today's ergot, which is used to make LSD.
Proof of this scariness (the image of a massive, high-as-a-kite, sauropod, chasing you down some field, thinking you’re a piece of succulent wheat) came from amber mines in Maynman. A piece of 100-million-year-old amber held the earliest grass fossil ever to be found. And on it was the “High Shroom”. It is believed that the prehistoric plant eaters would regularly consume this laced grass.
Scientists aren’t exactly sure how it affected the massive dinosaurs, but they speculate that consuming this fungus would cause the same symptoms as ergot, to modern animals - hallucinations, gangrene, losing their balance, intense pain, and seizures. During the Middle Ages, hundreds upon hundreds of people dies sometimes, when ergot-infected rye bread was made. This peculiar piece of amber proves that this parasite has been around since the dawn of dinosaurs or even earlier.
A harvestman found in amber may reveal further information about how the extinction of the dinosaurs affected the arachnids. This relative of arachnids died out about 100 million years ago and is nearly identical to the modern harvestman spider. Scientists are quite fascinated about this discovery from the Mesozoic Era, as it could reveal how many arachnid groups managed to survive the global cataclysm that annihilated the dinosaurs.
Almost every species on the planet had their fate sealed by what most believe to have been a massive asteroid that collided with earth 65 million years ago. The further, post-apocalyptic harvestmen are very similar to the specimen that was found in amber, so its lineage must have survived the ancient cataclysm. Arachnids appeared to have diced with the asteroid and its fallout and come out the other side relatively unscathed.
5. Continental History Rewritten
The Indian subcontinent split off from Antarctica around 150 million yeas ago, remaining independent until it embraced Asia around 50 million years back. Geological evidence seems to support this theory, however recent amber findings tend to suggest otherwise.
When scientists dissolved Indian amber going back to the separation period, they thought they would find species that had evolved in unique ways. Considering that the subcontinent had no outside DNA influence for a 100 million year, that was a reasonable hypothesis. Instead, the 700 insects and spiders found in the amber were closely related to the other fossils found in Europe, Australia, New Guinea and tropical America.
This stunning discovery has scientists convinced that there is some unseen connection between all these places. India’s fauna didn’t evolve in isolation. Plant findings in the amber suggests that the landscapes closely resembled modern forests and rainforests are believed to be even older than previously believed, most likely dating back to the dinosaur extinction.
Scientists can only construct a picture of prehistoric life with what evidence they have. Some of the evidence came from the fossil ants found in North America and South Asia. Since there were no representatives of this species anywhere else, the assumption grew that either of those places was the birthplace of ants. This, however, was disproved when Ethiopian amber was studied.
Among the samples, a tiny, nearly 95 millions year old ant was found. This African fossil added a third candidate for the Origin of Ants and provided an excellent opportunity to study how the three ant groups are related.
The amber specimens from Ethiopia held even more wonders. A few insects, a spider, and one mite were the oldest to come from Africa and would have wondered the landscapes along with the Cretaceous dinosaurs. Some ferns, fungi and never-before-seen spores also were found.
3. Prehistoric Bees and Polen
20 million years ago, a bee on duty had a run in with resin pouring out of a tree while collecting pollen. Unfortunately it perished and fortunately for us ended up in a lab as a chunk of amber in 2005.
Scientists have identified the pollen as being orchids. This finding suggests that orchids are not only older than previously thought but the oldest of all flowering plants. The flower that provided the pollen was 15-20 million years old, but its ancestors could go back as far as 70 million. The grandpa (or is it grandma) orchid, Melioris Caribea, was placed within one of five subfamilies that still exist.
This particular amber specimen is also valuable because it is rare proof that pollination was not a prehistoric accident. The now-extinct stingless bee was covered in pollen - something only specialised flower parts could do.
A wonderful specimen was found in the amber market in Burma, where trading is dangerously casual. Nearly 30% of the amber found there contains valuable fossils from the Cretaceous, but they are seen as imperfections and are destroyed by jewelers. Scientists have bought two pieces containing preserved feathers. After inspection, it surprised everyone, as it became clear that they were, in fact, a pair of wingtips.
The structure of the wings found in the amber resembled that of modern birds, just a whopping 100 million years older. They are believed to have belonged to a prehistoric species of avian dinosaurs.
Under closer inspection, colour returned to the feathers. Silver, dark to light brown and even white bands. Before, the feathers from avian dinosaurs were only found on imprints or fragments too small to be inspected. What appears to be the case, however, the discovered wing tips belonged to an entire bird encased in amber, before they were cut off from a larger amber piece. The rest of the bird have not been found.
1. Entire Evolution Record
It is one thing to find wing tips of an avian dinosaur, but another thing entirely to find feathers from normal dinosaurs with no wings to speak of.
In a massive stroke of luck, amber mine in Alberta yielded all the stages of such dinosaur feather evolution. The 80 million-year-old pieces tell a story of how sparse hair-resembling strands turned into the normal double-branched structure of modern birds feathers.
What’s fascinating is that the prehistoric feathers weren’t meant for flying as much as for swimming, like the birds of today that live in and around water. There is also more and more evidence that suggests that most dinosaurs, even the non-bird ones, had brightly coloured plumage. The previously believed theory that their lizard skins only sprouted dull earth colours is fading from serious studies. It is a whole new way to look at dinosaurs. But a fluffy rainbow t-rex is still scary as hell.
