Premium insects besieged in amber give a glimpse of ancient life on Earth: “small windows in the past”

Scientists have discovered prehistoric insects preserved in amber for the first time in South America, providing a new glimpse of life on Earth at a time when flowering plants have just began to diversify and spread all over the world.

Many samples in a sandstone quarry in Ecuador 112 million years ago, said Fabiani Herrera, the fossil plants at the field museum in Chicago and the co -author of the study. Publishing Thursday In the Earth Communications Magazine and
environment. At least six types of reserved arthropods are found, according to the study.

David Grimaldi, an insect scientist at the American Museum of Natural History that did not participate in Gondawana, said that almost all the amber deposits have almost 130 million years ago were in the northern hemisphere, and David Grimaldi, the insect scientist at the American Museum of Natural History, who did not participate in the superior dance field. discovery.

This represents the first time that researchers have defined old beetles, flies, ants, and wasps in the resin triggers in South America, which were also not involved in the new study.

“Cut the amber are small windows in the past,” said Perez de la Fenti.

The researchers discovered hundreds of amber fragments, some of which contain old insects, pollen and tree leaves, in a sandstone quarry in Ecuador on the edge of what is the day of the Amazon
pelvis.

Two types of amber were discovered, according to the study: there was a more common form of amber around the roots of the resin plants, and a rare form of the material from the resin exposed to air. The study said that the amber that was formed around the roots had no samples.

“A different type of forest”

Discoveries provide evidence that one day the area was a “satellite environmental system for forests”, according to the study.

Herrera said the rainforests today is very different from what the dinosaurs wander around. Based on the analysis of fossils in amber, the old rainforests contained types of fern and pine, including an unusual monkey gas tree, which no longer grow in the Amazon.

“It was a different type of forest,” said Herrera.

Amber deposits were previously known to geologists and miners who worked in the Genoveva quarry. The co -author of the study heard Carlos Jarmello at the Smithsonian Institute for Equatorial Research for the first time about them about a decade and began to find the exact position, with the help of geological field notes.

“I went there and realized that this place was amazing,” said Jaramilo. “There is a lot of amber in the mines,” which is more clear in the open quarry, which was hidden under dense layers of vegetation.

Researchers will continue to analyze amber to learn more about the biological diversity of the chalk era-including insects that have contributed to the development through feeding on flowering plants. “The amber tends to preserve small things,” said Grimaldi.

“It is time when the relationship between flowering plants and insects has started,” said Perez de la Fenti. “It turns out that this is one of the most successful partnerships in nature.”