Chinese scientists identify rare amber covering ancient marine animal – Xinhua

The amber piece shows the largest inclusions (Credit: NIGPAS)

WASHINGTON, May 13 (Xinhua) – An international group led by Chinese scientists has identified the first known amber containing a marine animal called ammonite about 100 million years ago.

The study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences described the amber of 6.08 grams, which measures 33 mm long, 9.5 mm wide and 29 mm high . The discovery provided a clue to the ecology of the ancient coastal forest.

Although many terrestrial plants and animals are preserved by amber inclusions, it is rare to find marine life trapped in amber, according to the study.

Researchers from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Academy of Sciences of China (NIGPAS) have used X-rays to obtain three-dimensional, high-resolution images of ammonite, including its Hollow sutures, essential characteristics for the identification of ammonite.

They discovered that ammonite is a juvenile belonging to a group of ammonites that lived about 105 million to 93 million years ago. This is a rare example of marine animal dating using amber inclusions.

The shells are all empty, without soft tissue, revealing that the organisms were long dead and that they had been removed by the time they were engulfed by the resin.

Wang Bo, researcher at NIGPAS and correspondent author of the newspaper, told Xinhua that the ancient Myanmar coastal forest was producing resin and wrapping the dead ammonite on the beach before becoming amber. Authors also included researchers from the National Museum of Scotland, Oxford University and the University of Indiana.

Sea snails and sea slaters are included in amber. According to the study, amber has also engulfed some terrestrial animals, including spiders, cockroaches, beetles and wasps, most of which would have inhabited the forest floor.

According to the researchers, the most likely explanation for the occurrence of marine and terrestrial organisms in the amber is that a sandy beach covered with shells was located near the trees producing resin.