Mating flies frozen in time were found encased in amber for the past 41 million years. The flies, still locked in their mating pose, were swallowed up by tree sap which then hardened into protective amber that preserved them and made it possible for paleontologists to study them. The flies are just part of a …
Fossilized tree sap, called amber, is an absolutely amazing substance. It lasts for an incredibly long time, and it has yielded some of the most incredible fossil discoveries of our time. If you need more evidence that amber is a paleontologists’ best friend, look no further than the new paper published today in Current Biology. …
If you were to travel back in time about 100 million years you’d see a whole lot of things that you can’t see today. Dinosaurs roamed the land and those would have been pretty neat to see in person, but something slithering beneath your feet would have looked a lot like it does today: the …
If there’s one thing that Jurassic Park taught us (besides the fact that Jeff Goldblum is a national treasure and should be cherished) it’s that ancient tree sap is really really good at preserving bugs. Despite the wealth of pseudoscience and outright fiction in Jurassic Park, the ability of hardened amber to offer a glimpse …
To humans, ticks are vile little creatures that do little but annoy and at times cause pain. You’ve probably never felt sorry for one of the little buggers under any circumstances, but this 100-year-old tick discovered in Myanmar might actually tug at your heart strings a bit. Discovered trapped in ancient amber, the tiny creature …
If you’re one of the many people who have a fear of spiders, going back in time 100 million years apparently wouldn’t have done you any good. A new, bizarre spider-like creature has just been discovered in Southeast Asia, having been encased in amber during the Cretaceous period some 100 million years ago, and it …
