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This is a petal from the flower of the now-extinct species of algarrobo tree
whose resin was the source of all Dominican amber. Without this single species
of tree, the fabulously rich community of ancient life captured in Dominican
amber—which includes the largest fossil gathering of land-dwelling
invertebrates in a tropical environment—would not have been preserved.
This tan petal probably fell shortly after the flower opened.
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Amber can record the most fleeting moments of forest life. Here, pollen grains
that were in the process of spilling out of a falling algarrobo stamen spread
like a handful of tossed salt onto the surface of the sticky resin. Millions of
years later, the grains remain intact, with their original protoplasm still
inside.
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Resembling a floral sea urchin, this "spiked ribbon" seed has long golden
ribbons extending out from a coiled hub. The ribbons were likely used to aid
the seed's dispersal, but precisely how is unknown. The source plant of the
seed, whose diameter is just over a half an inch from ribbon tip to ribbon tip,
has not been identified.
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This fig wasp proves that plants of the fig genus existed in the amber forest,
even though no direct evidence of fig trees or shrubs has turned up in
Dominican amber. Each species of fig today has its own specific wasp
pollinator; experts believe the same to have been true back then. Note also the
tiny wormlike creatures caught in the midst of escaping from the wasp's body.
Such nematodes today hitch a ride on fig wasps to the next fig, where they
multiply.
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This extinct mushroom is the only known fossil tropical mushroom ever found.
One of the smallest members of the so-called inky cap family, this specimen
likely grew on the bark of the algarrobo tree with others of its kind. When the
cinnamon-colored mushroom was overrun by a glob of resin, a tiny mite grazing
on its cap was entombed forever in the very act of dining (see mite lower right).
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Planthoppers were common in the amber forest. Like their living relatives
today, they used their needle-like beaks and sucking mouthparts to draw out
juices from within leaves. This strikingly well-preserved planthopper was
frozen in time so quickly that it didn't even have time to retract its
wings.
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This "alligator-headed" planthopper indeed resembles its reptilian namesake.
And perhaps not just in name: scientists have seen modern versions of such
planthoppers resting with their snouts high in the air, not unlike the stance
that some reptiles maintain. "Whether this behavior actually frightens
potential predators is unknown," writes George Poinar, Jr. in his book The
Amber Forest, "but why else would such a posture evolve?"
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Very few adult butterflies have been found in Dominican amber, and all those,
including this one, belong to the metalmark family. Small and speckled, this
orange-brown butterfly may have mistaken a patch of resin on an algarrobo tree
for a tasty pool of sap. The sticky resin would have instantly immobilized its
wings, which possessed nowhere near the strength needed to lift away.
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It was not a good day for this moth fly, which had the bad luck to be caught
twice, first in a spider web and then in resin. These delicate strands of
spider silk are so well preserved that experts have been able to identify their
spinner: a member of the spider family Araneidae.
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These recently hatched spiderlings might have been on the verge of "ballooning"
when they were trapped. Ballooning is a technique young spiders use to travel
long distances quickly. Spiderlings climb to an exposed location and begin
generating silk threads. When the threads reach a certain length, the wind
lifts both them and the spiderlings aloft before dropping them to the ground
again some distance away. Experts have collected some spiders thousands of feet
in the air, showing how successful this tactic can be.
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This army ant appears to have been out on a hunting mission when it was
entrapped. Judging from the wasp pupa beside it, the worker had raided a wasp
nest and was in the process of carrying its prize back to the nest when it had
the misfortune of stepping or falling into a blob of resin.
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Ant
bugs like this one lie in wait on tree bark near foraging ants. When hungry, they rear up and
expose their undersides, which release a secretion attractive to ants. As the
ants start feeding on the substance, they become lethargic from a narcotic in
the secretion. That's when the ant bug strikes, savagely driving its beak into
the weakened ant's body and sucking out its life juices. The ant bug's hairs
protect it from any death-throe bites or scrabbles by its victim. Today, ant bugs are extinct in the Western Hemisphere.
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Other ant predators found on the algarrobo tree millions of years ago were
pseudoscorpions. When it succumbed to the resin, this pseudoscorpion was in the
midst of attacking an ant. Victory for the assailant was not a foregone
conclusion, however; ants sometimes win such battles and destroy their
attackers.
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Parasitic beetles are uncommon today, but their natural history tells us how
beetles like this one with its bizarre, antler-like lobes thrived in the amber
forest. Though social wasps are one of its prey, such beetles do not have to
encounter a wasp in order to parasitize it. Instead, the beetle lays its eggs
on or near flowers. When its larvae hatch, they wait for a wasp to alight on
the flower to imbibe nectar. The larvae then grab hold of the wasp and hitch a
ride back to its nest, where they transform into grubs and dine on wasp larvae.
Later the grubs pupate in the soil and then go on to continue the cycle.
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Lizards in amber are extremely rare—so rare that a single intact specimen
can bring hundreds of thousands of dollars on the collectors' market. This
gecko may have been eyeing a tasty insect feeding on the leaf seen here when it
attacked the bug and unintentionally brought down the leaf and itself into a
mass of resin. The victim might still remain inside the gecko's throat.
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No entire birds have ever been found in amber, but parts of them have,
including this feather. While a variety of feathers are known from amber, this
is the only one that experts have identified. It belonged to a small bird in
the woodpecker family known as a piculet. A relative of this bird called the
Antillean piculet still lives in the Dominican Republic today.
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As with birds, no intact mammals have turned up in amber, but traces of them
have. Experts were able to guess what creature left behind this tuft of hair
both by examining microscopic features in the strands and by identifying two
parasites—a fur mite and a fur beetle—found in the
hairs. These clues led them to conclude that this tuft belonged to a rodent,
possibly an extinct relative of the hutia. Hutias are small, secretive
creatures still living in the Caribbean area today, millions of years after the
owner of this fur perhaps brushed up against an algarrobo, entombing a
swatch of its hair for eternity.
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