A#1: Amber is the fossilized resin of ancient plants that existed on earth millions of years ago. The physical and chemical processes that gave rise to amber in the past are still not completely understood, even though some plants living today are producing the amber of the future. It is known that only certain types of resin that contain the right chemical constituents can yield true amber, but that key physical actions in the environment over time (e.g. heat, pressure, amount of exposure to oxygen or light) are also important in the process of "amberization."
A#2: It's now known that a suprisingly large diverse group of ancient plants, both coniferous and non-coniferous, have produced ambers. For example, amber from the Dominican Republic and Mexico had at it's source the ancient hardwood tree Hymenaea. Amber from Burma (now Myanmar) was derived from a completely unrelated hardwood tree. Relatives of sweetgum trees appear to have been responsible for producing other ambers. Among the coniferous trees thought to bear amber resins in the past, ancient trees of the pine, cypress or cedar, and Araucariaceae families are the most likely sources. As to the true "amber tree", it is now apparent that that title can no longer be applied to one type of tree. Much of the paleobotany and paleochemistry associated with amber formation is still considered a hot, much debated area of research.
A#3: First of all, beware of pieces that are too uniform or too perfect. Amberization involves processes that result in imperfection in pieces, imperfections that often give amber its personality. So, bubbles, plant debris, clouds, inner layers, cracks and fissures, insect parts, opacities, swirls and stresslines are present to some degree in most pieces and can help verify authenticity. Beware, for example, of a necklace of perfectly matched, transparent beads -- that would be most unlikely. Insect inclusions that appear flawless or perfectly placed are also suspect, since most insects and animals entombed in amber show signs of struggle and attempts to flee before dying.
Free pieces of amber and copal (obviously not mounted jewelry!!) are buoyant and will float in a saturated salt solution (15.4 grams of salt dissolved in 100 ml of water), similar to its behavior in sea water. But beware -- although some synthetics will sink in the salt water test, by no means all will.
The hot needle test can be applied cautiously to specimens. Choose an area that is hidden from view (e.g. interior of bead drill hole). Heat a needle to red heat in a flame and quickly insert it into the amber. True amber and copal should give off a non-acrid, aromatic piney odor. Since copal is softer than amber, the needle may actually penetrate a copal specimen; it shouldn't enter amber easily. Most synthetics will produce an acrid, foul smelling odor (characteristic burning plastic) and sooty smoke. Obviously, this test also has caveats. Some clever synthetic fakes can be coated with a surface layer of amber or copal, and they might pass the needle test.
More refined tests are more destructive and may be hard to have performed. True amber is relatively resistant to a variety of solvents, where copal and many synthetics are much more reactive. Amber is fairly insoluble to a drop of acetone or ether, but synthetics will often become tacky and start to dissolve. Copal will also soften when touched with acetone.
In general, true ambers give the impression of lightness and warmth and a complex, glowing luster. Many, but by no means all, synthetics feel heavy and cold, and appear to radiate a dull luster.
A#4: Another tricky one! Many experts seem to agree that to be called true amber, the resin must be at least several millions years old. Copal is rather young resin, derived from a variety of plant sources, but still in the process of amberization. It's generally thought that as the volatile components (e.g.terpenes, esters) leave the resin over time, and polymerization proceeds, copal is transformed to amber. Some also believe that a period of immersion in salt water may be required to complete the transformation to amber. Copal can range from tens to hundreds to thousands of years old, perhaps to a few million at the extreme (this is a debatable issue among experts). I suppose you could more-or-less say that all amber was once copal or copal-like, but copal is not amber.
Most, if not all, resins that come from New Zealand (Kauri gum), Africa, and Colombia are copal. Some near-colorless, almost transparent pieces containing beautifully preserved insect and plant inclusions from Colombia that have been marketed as amber is really very young copal, and buyers should be aware of this.
It's not always easy to distinguish between amber and copal, but generally copal is much softer than amber and often appears "crazed" or cracked/crusty on its surface. On a grinding wheel, copal will start to melt and fuse; amber will not melt. See description of hot needle and solvent tests above.
A#5: The largest single piece of amber was unearthed in Sarawak in 1991. It weighs over 150 pounds and is in the collection of the Museum für Naturkunde in Stuttgart, Germany.
A#6: Not necessarily true amber, the oldest fossil resins are from about 260-320 million years ago, found in Ural mountain deposits and caoal beds in England. The oldest true ambers date from the Triassic, around 250 million years ago. The amber from the Schliersee deposits in Bavaria, dating back 220-230 million years, contains fossil micro-organisms.
A#7: Actually, only pieces of genes have been amplified and cloned from DNA fragments of insects in amber, and these fragments are only remnants of the actual genes. Using a jig-saw puzzle analogy, if the fly or termite is composed of tens of thousands of genes, then you would have to isolate, restore and then reassemble all the genes properly to reconstruct an entire organism. Worse still, since only gene fragments have been obtained, only a piece of a piece of the puzzle (maybe respresenting one-millionth of the total gene complement) is available. It would take an absolutely astronomical effort to put the whole organism puzzle together from just one piece out of a million.
Most DNA in amber is degraded; little is intact. The reality is that is the odds are tremendously against eve reconstructing a whole, living fly (much less a dinosaur!!!) from its DNA shards in amber. But it makes for entertaining, exciting science fiction.
The latest in the amber fossil/DNA story has a rather disappointing implication. Quite recently, a group of scientists in England spent considerable effort in an attempt to replicate the isolation and cloning of ancient DNA from samples of the amberized insect specimens that had been previously reported in the literature. They were unable to do so, noting that the DNA sequences they did obtain were most likely due to contamination from contemporary DNA. Their study seems pretty thorough, rigorously controlled and conclusive, thereby putting the whole ancient DNA story into contention. Doesn't look to good for resurrecting dinosaurs, much less ancient flies and bees.
A#8: It's not easy to reliably tell the difference between B & D amber, but there are some clues you can look for. Most of my comments are based on subjective, impressionistic evaluation, not hard science, so evaluate with caution.
a) inclusions: On microscopic inspection, Baltic amber usually contains stellate (star-shaped) clusters of the hairs of ancient relatives of oaks (Quercus) that fluorishished in the amber forests along with the amber-bearing trees. The presence of stellate hairs help confirm, but do not prove, the Baltic Coast origins of the amber. Furthermore, under a microscope, insect inclusions in Baltic amber often appear to have a milky coating associated with them. On the other hand, one could expect a higher proportion of recognizable fossil animal inclusions in Dominican amber, since amber from that region generally has a higher concentration and greater diversity of animal inclusions.
b) variability/color: In general, you're much more likely to encounter wider extremes in amber "personality" with Baltic ambers (but remember that by its very nature amber can take on a wide variety of colors, lusters, etc, so even amber from the same region might display great diversity). Baltic pieces most often contain milky clouds, opacities, swirls and layering, etc. and display the greatest range of variation.
My overall impression is that Baltic ambers tend towards the more opaque, lustrous buttery yellow or golden brown color range and Dominican ambers in the brighter, more transparent yellow-golds. A necklace of Dominican amber might be expected to display more uniformity and transparency.
c) chemical composition: Baltic and Dominican ambers are chemically different, deriving from different ancient plant resins. For example, Baltic amber is sometimes referred to as "succinite", due to the presence of succinic acid in its chemical profile, while Dominican contains little if any succinic acid. Though the chemical signatures of different ambers can be analyzed with sophisticated instruments, routine chemical testing is neither readily available nor feasible for most situations.
A#9: With the passage of time, amber gradually darkens, becomes more brittle, and more opaque. Eventually, inclusions will become more difficult to visualize, colors will dull and change and, potentially worst of all, the amber could be destroyed by crumbling and fragmenting.
While in the earth (or under water), amber is protected for the most part from the ravages of it's greatest enemies, oxygen and light. The destructive process of oxidation is promoted by heat and light, so the simplest measure you can take to protect amber specimens is to keep them in a cool place away from strong light. It's not too practical to totally exclude oxygen (air) from the amber, but placing it in small sealable plastic bags may help reduce the overall exposure levels over time. For strict archival preservation, consider placing extremely rare or precious material under an inert gas. Also, be aware that volatile or caustic components in oils and solvents can harm ambers. This includes some of the oils used to submerge amber for photomicrography of inclusions! Perhaps even the oils left by routine handling of specimens may ultimately cause damage.
A#10: Yes. Bird feathers and mammalian hairs have at times been found as very rare inclusions in amber in the past. More recently, the amberized molars and part of the jaw of an ancient shrew-like small mammal was found in a specimen of Baltic amber. Since then, a portion of the vertebral column and ribcage of a small mammal was described in Dominican amber.
A#11: Since amber history covers so much time, so many cultures and regions worldwide, it would almost take a book (for instance, see David Grimaldi's book "Amber") to answer this one. But, briefly, in just about every ancient (and some current -- e.g. in southern Mexico) culture that has been involved with amber in some way, amber is generally associated with the sun, warmth, protection, and healing. In early peoples (like in the mesolithic Baltic peoples and the ancient Greeks), amber was directly related to gods/godesses or natural spiritual forces, and these were always beneficial ones, having to do with abundance, harvest, health. The mesolithic people of the Baltic coast carved hunting amulets and the faces of deities from amber; so did ancient Wessex peoples in England (including ritual cups and ornaments). The Greeks had a myth that amber rpresented the petrified tears of the Heliades, and was associated with the story of the solar god Helios and his son Phaeton. The Romans and Etruscans had lots of associations connected with amber, too -- again, mostly solar in influence. There are uncountable local myths, folk legends, and stories associated with the mysteries of amber, and even some basic common words in current use (e.g. electron) is derived from ancient descriptions of amber ("elektron" from the Greek term for it).
Today, some indian cultures in southern Mexico carve healing amulets from amber to ward off the evil eye and heal injuries, and in Islamic cultures, prayer beads (mesbahs) are often made with amber beads to reflect divine inspiration guidance (so I was told by an Arabian amber merchant). In many Asian cultures, amber carvings confer good luck and abundance.
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