ENTRAPPED BY TIME

Tree resins were very fluid and solidified very quickly through evaporation. A little fly or ant caught by the sticky resin remained trapped for centuries, this is how inclusions were formed. About 3 thousand representatives of fossil fauna have been found in amber, 10-15% of which are presently existing species of insects that have not evolved much since.

Most common inclusions are insects (86,7%) and Arachnids (11,6%), while animals of other classes occur only in 1,7% and plants in 0,4% of cases.

What is amber?
Formation
Morphology
Inclusions
Colours
From soil and water
Treatment
Real or not?
Qualities
Amber routes
Archeological finds
Amber in
medicine
Relatives throughout the World
Museum in museum

Most insects are perfectly preserved inside of amber - the tiniest hairs and scales could be seen. Most of the insects were entrapped while being alive - sometimes were blown by the wind, sometimes a tree exuded bigger quantity of resin while they were sitting on the trunk. Only small, mostly forest-living, species can be found, because bigger insects were strong enough to escape and water-living insects rarely got entrapped. Those insects that lived in dry places or did not fly in spring, when trees were exuding resin and processes of tree metabolism took place, are almost not found in amber.

Of all Arachnids found in amber most common "prisoners" are forest-living spiders that used to live on plants, under bark. 267 species of spiders, mostly tropical and subtropical, have been found in amber.
Besides spiders the products of their activity - fine webs with particles of wood or dew-drops, even their prey that had been sucked out and became dry - very often occur in pieces of amber. Professor J. Wunderlich from Hamburg University of Geology and Palaeontology found the first representative of previously unknown species of predatory spiders in our collection of inclusions. From now on this species of spiders will be named "Sosybius Mizgirisi", by the name of the owner. Other Arachnids found in amber are scorpions, false scorpions and ticks.

Discoveries of winged insects in amber are very erratic. Some of these insects, e.g. orthoptera are a biggest rarity, others, like dipterous, make up the biggest part of inclusions.

Fragments of plants that are found in amber are most often small leaves, needles, flowers and their parts, sometimes - small twigs and fruits. Of cryptogamic plants most often are liverworts that grew in subtropical climate and of gymnosperms - pine needles. The most often species of angiospermae are oak, beech and maple.

Beside that, plenty of spores, mainly of mushrooms and green moss, and pollen are found.

In addition to plants and arthropoda, other animals or their fragments - several oligocenes (?), nematodes and other small worms, 9 species of land mollusc - are found even though are very rare. The unique inclusion of snail's shell is exhibited in Amber Museum in Vilnius. This is also the pride of our collection.

Literature