Prehistoric insects trapped in Ambar give a vision of ancient life on earth:

Scientists have discovered prehistoric insects preserved in Amber for the first time in South America, providing a new vision of life on Earth at a time when plants with flowers were just beginning to diversify and spread throughout the world.

Many of the specimens found in a sandstone quarry in Ecuador date from 112 million years ago, said Fabiany Herrera, curator of fossil plants in the Campo Museum in Chicago and co -author of the study published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth and
Atmosphere. At least six types of preserved arthropods were found, according to the study.

Almost all known amber deposits of the last 130 million years have been in the northern hemisphere, and for a long time it has been “an enigma” that scientists have found few in the southern regions that once understood the supercontinent Gondwana, said David Grimaldi, an entomologist of the American Museum of Natural History that was not involved in discovery.

This is the first time that researchers identify beetles, flies, ants and old wasps in the resin of fossilized trees in South America, said Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente, a paleoentomologist at the Natural History Museum of the University of Oxford, who also did not participate in the new study.

“The amber pieces are small windows in the past,” said Pérez-de la Fuente, adding that the discovery will help researchers understand the evolutionary interactions between plants with flowers and insects that lived during the era of dinosaurs.

The researchers discovered hundreds of amber fragments, some that contain old insects, pollen leaves and trees, in a sandstone quarry in Ecuador that is on the edge of what the Amazon is today
basin.

According to the study, two types of amber were discovered: there was a more common form of amber that is around the roots of resin producing plants, and a more rare form of the material formed from the resin exposed to the air. The amber formed around the roots did not contain any sample, according to the study.

“A different type of forest”

The discoveries provide evidence that the area was once a “wet and resinous resinal forest ecosystem,” according to the study.

But today’s tropical jungle is very different from what dinosaurs roam, Herrera said. Based on a fossil analysis in amber, the old tropical jungle contained species of ferns and conifers, including the unusual monkey puzzle tree, which no longer grow in the Amazon.

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

Amber deposits were previously known by geologists and miners who worked in the Genoveva quarry. The study co -author, Carlos Jaramillo, at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, heard for the first time of them approximately a decade ago and set out to find the exact location, helped by Geology Field Notes.

“I went there and realized that this place is incredible,” Jaramillo said. “There is so much amber in the mines”, and it is more visible in the open quarry than it would be if it will hide under dense layers of vegetation.

Researchers will continue to analyze Amber’s treasure to learn more about the biodiversity of the Cretaceous era, including insects that contributed to evolution when feeding on flowers. “Amber tends to preserve things that are small,” said Grimaldi.

“It is the time when the relationship between plants with flowers and insects began,” said Pérez-de la Fuente. “And that turned out to be one of the most successful associations in nature.”

• Insects
• Science
• Ecuador