Add your Article
- Computers
- Programming with Alice
- A New Look at Saturn's rings
- The hungry blob at the edge of the universe
- Dinosaurs and Fossils
- Mammals in the Shadow of Dinosaurs
- Digging for Ancient DNA
- Have shell, will travel
- E Learning Jamaica
- Results of GSAT are in schools this week
- 2014 GSAT Results for Jamaican Kids
- E Learning in Jamaica WIN PRIZES and try our Fun Animated Games
- GSAT Exam Preparation Jamaica
- Tarrant High overcoming the odds
- 10 Common Mistakes When Preparing for the GSAT Math Test
- Scotiabank Jamaica Foundation Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) Scholarships
- GSAT Exams Jamaica Scholarships
- GSAT Practice Papers | GSAT Mathematics | Maths
- Results of GSAT are in schools this week
- GSAT stars reap scholarship glory
- GSAT Mathematics
- GSAT Mathematics Quiz, Teaching Math, teaching anxiety
- Prime Time for Cicadas
- Math and our number sense: PassGSAT.com
- Human Body
- Gut Microbes and Weight
- Fighting Off Micro-Invader Epidemics
- Sea Kids See Clearly Underwater
A Rainforest Trapped in Amber
Published: 07/01/2010
A group of paleontologists has found gold in the western Amazon. No, not the type of gold that’s made into jewelry or coins. Instead, the fossil-hunting scientists discovered ancient, gold-colored rocks that have tiny plants and insects trapped inside.
These fossilized plants and animals are valuable because they provide the best evidence yet that rainforests existed in the western part of the Amazon basin as long as 15 million years ago.
Barely a millimeter long, this fly was trapped in amber, the hardened resin of ancient trees, more than 10 million years ago.
Dario De Franceschi The researchers estimate that the little flies, gnats, and other bugs found in the amber became trapped 10 to 15 million years ago. At that time, sticky resin from trees covered the insects, along with plant pollen, fungi, and other tiny organisms. The resin hardened into amber and became lodged in layers of rock. The scientists found 28 of these gold-colored nuggets during their search near the Amazon River in northeastern Peru.
Covered with dirt, this piece of amber from Peru contains the fossils of tiny animals and plants.
© PNAS After they dug up the rocks, the paleontologists used microscopes to study the trapped fossils. In this way, they didn’t have to crack open the rocks and risk damaging the ancient plants and insects.
The researchers found that the fossils came from types of plants and insects that normally live in a rainforest. So, the fossils provide direct evidence that a rainforest existed in that area more than 10 million years ago.—E. Jaffe
A Rainforest Trapped in Amber
