6 of the Coolest Things We've Found in Amber

{♫Introduction♫} Amber is kind of amazing. And not just because you can use it to make really cool necklaces or, apparently, a brontosaurus... Specimens

found

in

amber

can teach us a lot about evolution or even how diseases like the plague spread. This is because

amber

preserves entire organisms and essentially freezes them in time. How does it happen? Well, first, some poor plant or animal gets trapped in a mass of tree resin, a thick, sticky substance that the plant releases when damaged. Then, when the resin hardens, the creature is practically mummified. As serious. The chemical composition of tree resin actually dehydrates organisms and that stops processes that would otherwise break down their tissues.

The resin even has antiseptic and antimicrobial compounds that help prevent fungi from breaking

things

down. This means that

things

that would not normally fossilize well, such as plants and soft animal tissues, can be preserved in amber. And the specimens we've

found

so far range from astonishing to downright bizarre. So, without further ado, here are six of the most interesting things we've found trapped in amber. First, look at the leaves of this carnivorous plant, which were described in a 2015 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They are 35 million years old and come from a species of ancient roridulid plant, a genus of evergreen shrubs that trap insects.

The scientists discovered this because the leaves have characteristics that are very similar to modern roridula plants found in South Africa. For example, they are long, narrow and tapered. They are also covered in two types of hair-like structures called trichomes. One type is more rigid and non-sticky, and the other comes in different lengths and secretes a type of glue. Those are the structures that trap and immobilize insects, which is what makes these plants carnivorous. Except roridulids like this ancient specimen also seem to have a problem: Once they've trapped a meal with their sticky trichomes, they can't actually break it down on their own.

They simply do not have the necessary digestive enzymes. But they have managed. Instead of developing their own enzymes, they rely on capsid bugs to do the work for them. The insects feed on the trapped organisms and then the plant feeds on the poop from the capsid. A delight, I love it! Seeing something like this trapped in amber is always cool, because plant leaves generally don't fossilize well. But this specimen also told scientists something about the climate in which this plant lived. Before this fossil was found, scientists thought that roridulids originated in Gondwana, the supercontinent that broke up to form Australia and part of South America, among other things.

But this piece of amber was found in a mine near Kaliningrad, Russia, meaning the plants could also have been in the northern hemisphere for a while. Since roridula plants do not do well in the cold, that suggests that the climate in Russia about thirty-five million years ago was probably warmer than today. Which seems like a lot to learn from a piece of old tree resin. In 2011, scientists found 11 early forms of feathers, called protofeathers, hidden in amber specimens from a museum and university in Canada. The protofeathers date back to the Upper Cretaceous period, between one hundred and 66 million years ago.

And that was really convenient, because most of the feathers found before that date were from much earlier in history, between 146 and 100 million years ago. So scientists had a gap in their understanding of feather evolution. That meant that no matter what, these amber specimens were going to come in handy. But they turned out to be incredibly useful because they contained four distinct stages of feather evolution. First, there were filament fibers that looked like hairs, except they are hollow and have no scales on their surface. The researchers concluded that these feathers were very similar to the protofeathers of certain non-avian dinosaurs, which helped keep the animals warm.

Then the second stage was a group of these filaments branching out from a base. Something like the protofeathers of some jumping dinosaurs. These may have been decorative or added rigidity to their tails. In the third stage, those filament tufts fused to form a central axis and barbules. These protofeathers actually looked a lot like the feathers of modern grebes. These diving birds have similar feathers on their bellies that help absorb water and make them less buoyant for diving. So scientists suggest that these stage three feathers in amber may have been from diving dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous.

Finally, stage four feathers closely resembled those of many modern birds and could have been used for a variety of functions, including flight. However, the team believes they came from dinosaurs, based on the age of the amber and similarities to other specimens. Overall, these researchers pretty much hit the jackpot. They had believed these four stages existed before, but with these discoveries, they essentially got a timeline of how feathers evolved and how they were used during the Late Cretaceous. In our last two examples, it was easy to see why the specimens were great. But sometimes, the most surprising part of these discoveries is not so obvious.

That was the case in 2015, when scientists identified a new species of flea trapped in amber. The amber came from a mine in the mountains of the Dominican Republic and the flea it contained was between 15 and 45 million years old. It looked pretty much like modern fleas, except with some extra appendages and features like small eyes. But what was really interesting was what the scientists found in his mouth. There they discovered a group of bacteria with approximately the same size and shape as the modern bacteria that caused the bubonic plague. Yes, that plague. Although researchers were unable to confirm this, they believe these microbes may be an ancestor of the bacteria that caused the infamous Black Death of the 14th century.

And if that's true, it means that ancient strains of plague may not have evolved as human parasites, but as rodents. That's partly because, well, humans didn't exist about 15 million years ago. But also, the ancient bacteria were found in a mass of dried gunk near the flea's esophagus, which looks a lot like the mass that forms when today's fleas drink plague-infested rat blood. Scientists also found fossilized rodent hairs at the site where the new flea was discovered. That suggests that plagues could have wiped out many more animals than previously thought, and perhaps even contributed to extinctions. In any case, this is not something we would have discovered if that poor flea hadn't gotten stuck in a pile of tree resin.

So, thank you for your sacrifice, flea. Speaking of bloodsuckers, the next creature is a little less known. It's called a bat fly. There are about five hundred species of them and they are like the vampires of the fly world, because they feed exclusively on bat blood. Or maybe they are like the vampires of the vampires of the animal kingdom... Anyway. In 2011, scientists found a bat fly between 15 and 45 million years old trapped in amber from that same mountain range in the Dominican Republic. It's one of only two fossilized batflies ever found, but as is the trend here, that wasn't the most interesting thing about it.

It was the fact that, right there, in the midgut of the fly, were two eggs that contained an ancient form of malaria in bats. And in the fly's salivary glands, there was also a spore-like stage of the parasite. Now, to be clear, when I say “bat malaria,” I only mean a strain of malaria that infects bats, not one that affects people. But studying it is still important to keep animals safe. The researchers identified the pathogen as an ancestor of malaria in bats because those spore-like stages resembled a modern parasite, with their stubby shape and rounded edges.

Ultimately, this find was somewhat surprising to scientists, because one: an ancient malaria-bat, trapped in amber! It is a surprising and unlikely discovery! But also, before this, researchers thought that only flies of the genus Nycteribiidae spread malaria in bats. And this fly in amber was from another closely related family of bat flies, called Streblidae. So this small specimen was the first evidence, in both living and extinct bats, that Streblidae can also transmit malaria in bats. Of course, just because no one has found a live specimen doesn't mean the family can't transmit malaria from bats today. Which is important to know if we are trying to keep animals healthy.

Amber truly captures a moment in time, and that's especially true when it comes to our next amber artifact. This piece came from that same Caribbean mountain range with the flea and the bat, and contained a new species of salamander. Or at least, a completely new species for us. Because in reality, this animal has been extinct for millions of years. Scientists classified the new find as part of the Plethodon salamander family, and it is the only salamander known to have existed in the Caribbean. This animal shared many characteristics with modern pletodons, except one: it did not have distinct fingers like those of modern salamanders.

Instead, it simply had small bumps on top of the straps. That told scientists that it probably didn't climb as well as its modern counterparts and may have lived in small trees or flowering plants. Still, as I said, there are no salamanders in the Caribbean today, and that made researchers wonder how this species got there and where they all went. Right now, they think that the ancestors of this animal may have arrived on the islands when they were still connected to South America, between forty and 60 million years ago. Then they stayed there and then evolved into this plethodont when the islands separated.

Alternatively, they could have crossed a land bridge when sea level was low, or even floated on a log at some point as some Caribbean frog species did. However, no matter how they got there, they certainly didn't stay. All Caribbean salamanders probably became extinct because the climate became colder and drier between 38 and 23 million years ago. And that makes this salamander (and this specimen trapped in amber) pretty special. Finally, what inspired this whole episode was that in 2019 scientists found the hind leg of a bird encased in 99 million-year-old amber from a valley in Myanmar. The foot was unusual in that its third toe was much longer than any of the other toes.

And I'm not going to talk a little more. This finger was about 40% longer than the others and about 1/5 longer than the lower leg bone. When researchers tried to classify this, they were a bit stumped. Because no other bird, living or extinct, had legs like these. So they put this new animal into a separate group and named it Elektorornis chenguangi, which means "amber bird." Names aside, this whole long finger thing was a bit strange, and scientists still aren't sure exactly why Elektorornis had it. They suggest in their article that perhaps it was a tree-dwelling bird, so the long fingers helped it grab branches, and the two really long fingers could help it get food out of holes in tree trunks.

Part of this is inspired by the fact that the modern aye-aye lemur also has a similarly long toe. Therefore, this could be a sign of convergent evolution, where similar traits develop due to similar environmental challenges. One way or another, this specimen showed scientists that the birds were developing all kinds of strange solutions as they branched out into different areas of their environment. And, like the other examples on this list, those details might have been lost if not for the amber. So next time you watch Jurassic Park, go ahead and marvel at the things tree resin can do.

It definitely won't bring back the dinosaurs anytime soon, because good DNA samples just don't last that long. But it is an excellent time capsule. Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow! If you enjoy the show and want to help us create more free content like this, there are a few ways you can support our work, including becoming a channel member! Channel members help keep SciShow running and, as our way of saying thank you, they also getSome benefits! Like cool badges and exclusive emojis to use in chat, and members-only posts in the community tab. If you are already a member or support SciShow in other ways, thank you!

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