Chinese mosquitoes on the Baltic Sea: Ancient insect inclusions in East-Asian amber
The analysis of the roughly 3,000 pieces is still in its infant stage. But it is already evident that the results will be of major significance. "Amazingly often, we are finding-in addition to Asian forms-the same insect species in Fushun amber that we found in Baltic amber," explained Bonn paleontologist Professor Dr. Jes Rust.
The Baltic amber comes from the Baltic Sea region, which is almost 10,000 kilometers from Fushun. Sites rich in finds are, e.g., the coastal regions of Mecklenburg, Poland and Belarus. The pieces from the Baltic region are slightly younger than the ones from Fushun-according to estimates, about 40 to 50 million years. At that time, Europe and Asia were divided by the Strait of Turgay, a wide arm of the ocean. Many researchers had assumed until now that this body of saltwater prevented species migrations between the continents-or at least, made it much harder. "Consequently, the great similarity of the included insects has been a great surprise to us," said Rust. "We don't know yet how that fits together."
A neglected treasure
In the vicinity of the Northeast Chinese city of Fushun, there are large lignite deposits. Humans have been digging up this fuel from the ground for more than a century already. And in doing so, they also kept finding pieces of amber. Traditionally, the locals made jewelry from it. Particularly beautiful finds with interesting inclusions are highly sought after among collectors.
Until now, the inclusions had not been studied systematically. It was the Chinese paleontologist Dr. Bo Wang who finally recognized the scientific potential of Fushun amber. Wang, who is currently at the Bonn University on a research grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, used his good contacts with institutes and collectors to start systematically cataloguing the finds. An analysis is currently underway in collaboration with paleontologists from Europe and the USA.
And it is beginning to become clear how rich this deposit is. So far, the researchers have been able to identify arachnids and insects from more than 80 families-a snapshot of the past that provides a detailed view of what tiny animals populated East Asia 53 million years ago.
In addition, the Fushun deposit is filling in one of the blank spots on the map. With the exception of India, it constitutes the only significant site where amber has been found in Asia. Rust regrets that the open pit mining in Fushun will soon stop. "But despite that, the detailed analysis of the finds will probably keep us busy for quite some time."
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Universität Bonn. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
- Bo Wang, Jes Rust, Michael S. Engel, Jacek Szwedo, Suryendu Dutta, André Nel, Yong Fan, Fanwei Meng, Gongle Shi, Edmund A. Jarzembowski, Torsten Wappler, Frauke Stebner, Yan Fang, Limi Mao, Daran Zheng, Haichun Zhang. A Diverse Paleobiota in Early Eocene Fushun Amber from China. Current Biology, 2014; 24 (14): 1606 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.05.048
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Decades-old amber collection offers new views of a lost world: Tiny grasshopper encased in amber
Scientists are searching through a massive collection of 20-million-year-old amber found in the Dominican Republic more than 50 years ago, and the effort is yielding fresh insights into ancient tropical insects and the world they inhabited.
When the collection is fully curated, a task that will take many years, it will be the largest unbiased Dominican amber collection in the world, the researchers report.
Perhaps the most striking discovery thus far is that of a pygmy locust, a tiny grasshopper the size of a rose thorn that lived 18- to 20-million years ago and fed on moss, algae and fungi. The specimen is remarkable because it represents an intermediate stage of evolution in the life of its subfamily of locusts (known as the Cladonotinae). The most ancient representatives of this group had wings, while modern counterparts do not. The newly discovered locust has what appear to be vestigial wings -- remnant structures that had already lost their primary function.
The discovery is reported in the journal ZooKeys.
"Grasshoppers are very rare in amber and this specimen is extraordinarily well-preserved," said Sam Heads, a paleontologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey, a division of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois.
Heads, laboratory technician Jared Thomas and study co-author Yinan Wang found the new specimen a few months after the start of their project to screen more than 160 pounds of Dominican amber collected in the late 1950s by former INHS entomologist Milton Sanderson. Sanderson described several specimens from the collection in a paper in Science in 1960, a report that inspired a generation of scientists to seek out and study Dominican amber, Heads said.
The bulk of the Sanderson amber collection remained in storage, however, until Heads uncovered it in 2010.
Heads has named the new pygmy locust Electrotettix attenboroughi, the genus name a combination of electrum (Latin from Greek, meaning "amber") and tettix (Greek, meaning "grasshopper"). The species is named for Sir David Attenborough, a British naturalist and filmmaker (not to be confused with Richard Attenborough, David's actor brother who appeared in the movie "Jurassic Park").
"Sir David has a personal interest in amber, and also he was one of my childhood heroes and still is one of my heroes and so I decided to name the species in his honor -- with his permission of course," Heads said. (Attenborough narrates and appears in a new video about the Sanderson collection and the specimen that bears his name.)
The process of screening the amber is slow and painstaking. Much of the amber is clouded with oxidation, and the researchers must carefully cut and polish "windows" in it to get a good look at what's inside. In addition to the pygmy locust, Heads and his colleagues have found mating flies, stingless bees, gall midges, Azteca ants, wasps, bark beetles, mites, spiders, plant parts and even a mammal hair.
The pygmy locust was found in a fragment that also contained wasps, ants, midges, plant remnants and fungi. Such associations are rich in information, Heads said, offering clues about the creatures' physiological needs and the nature of their habitat.
"Fossil insects can provide lots of insight into the evolution of specific traits and behaviors, and they also tell us about the history of the time period," Heads said. "They're a tremendous resource for understanding the ancient world, ancient ecosystems and the ancient climate -- better even, perhaps, than dinosaur bones."
The National Science Foundation supports this work. Heads and his colleagues are digitizing the best specimens, and will upload the images onto a publicly available website.
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
- Sam Heads, M. Thomas, Yinan Wang. A remarkable new pygmy grasshopper (Orthoptera, Tetrigidae) in Miocene amber from the Dominican Republic. ZooKeys, 2014; 429: 87 DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.429.8020
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