EXTREMELY RARE SNAIL! Fossil Dominican Amber Insect

Amber is a fossilized tree resin. It was formed over millions of years. The amber originated from the now extinct Hymenaea tree in an ancient rain forest. The tree sap (or resin) became buried and over time, fossilized. Animals, plants, and insects became entrapped and entombed in this resin, providing a unique and detailed snapshot of life millions of years ago. Amber inclusions are extremely important to scientists because they can be so well preserved. Compare this to fossils found in rocks where all that is left is the imprint in the rock. Amber has an incredible level of preservation for even the internal organs, soft tissues, muscles, the meal that something ate, and the DNA in its cells. Some scientific studies have even reportedly brought ancient bacteria, locked in amber, back to life! Rare inclusions in amber that have been found include lizards, scorpions, bird feathers, mammal hair, reptilian skin, frogs, and blood filled ticks. Botanical inclusions often consist of buds, leaves, twigs, and seeds. Even whole blooming flowers, from some ancient Springtime, are unearthed. In some rare instances, pollen streams were created as the resin flowed over the flower and carried the pollen away, creating a surrealistic scene as if the ancient winds were still blowing the pollen. Other inclusions in amber might consist of air pockets, rain droplets, and sometimes mixtures of air and water creating moving enhydros. The air content leaves us evidence to speculate on the composition of the ancient atmospheres that the prehistoric creatures breathed. The water droplets give us the oldest bottled water on earth, straight from a fresh morning shower in an ancient tropical rain forest. They may also harbor unknown extinct ancient aquatic bacteria, especially when the trapped fluid is within the body of an insect. Some amber reveals real life dramas and the interaction between different insects such as a pseudoscorpion carrying its babies, an ant with a larva in its mouth, swarms, mating insects, fighting insects, and parasitic insects riding on the backs of their host. These insects are more than merely inclusions in amber, they are actual events, frozen in time for an eternity. Amber gives us an amazingly detailed look at what life was like so long ago. This amber is mined in the beautiful mountains of the Dominican Republic. Over millions of years, the continents collided and bucked the land into spectacular pristine mountains. Amber from this region inspired the box-office hit movie Jurassic Park by Universal Pictures. The basis of the movie was that DNA was extracted from dinosaur blood inside mosquitoes and used to bring the dinosaurs back to life. Scientists in New York and California have reportedly extracted DNA from insects in amber. These findings enlighten our imagination. The possibility certainly exists that insects that have been found could have fed on the blood of dinosaurs shortly before being perfectly preserved in amber. For instance, sandflies have been found in Lebanese amber, which is Lower Cretaceous in age. The modern equivalent of this sandfly feeds on the blood of crocodiles. What if enough DNA could be isolated and used to clone and create living breathing creatures? Could this extinct world be recreated? Amber leaves us a lot to dream and speculate about!

Copyright 2002