How is it possible Amber

originally posted by: Terpene
a reply to: Ravenwatcher

There is always the possibility of it being fake...

They’re fairly common. My granny had one that she donated to the London Museum.

When I was a kid I went to see it there and it was part of a larger collection.

Prob not fake.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

just spit balling here,

if memory serves during the Pleistocene some say the parts of the world that weren't covered in ice were in a constant El Nino, so it was more than likely extremely warm in in columbia and much of south america.

i live in the panhandle of fl, on our property we have pine tress that i know are 55 years old because they were here when my folks bought the land. they are now i'd say at least 3 foot in diameter. during heat waves or even temps in the mid to high 90's pine sap/ resin rains out of them and even runs down in streams on the trunks. i see bugs caught in them all the time.

i say it's a good chance that is what happen to your bug.

oh and first thought i had when i saw the picture in the OP was

a reply to: FullHeathen
Did you know that the throne of Zeus is in Berlin? They brought it there from Pergamon.


Ive seen large blobs of amber before.

a reply to: visitedbythem

I did read about the Pergamon Altar in Berlin before, like 2009. The Gigantomachy, I will have to look for pictures of that now.

Did the blobs of amber have anything to do with Pergamon? Just reading the history, there was an Armenian community in Pergamon in the 7th Century, probably formed of refugees from the Muslim conquests.

I almost remember a connection between amber and honey in modern speculations of ancient times.

a reply to: NorthOS

Exactly it's muséum stuff quality, so yeah where is that source for the first pic... If real That's not something you'll buy on eBay, but It's easy to do it with epoxy...

Ohhh so that is Amber!? Ok, I don't know why I never made the connection. We call that ELEKTRA in Greek!

I traced the amber piece back to its last sale, which was via Heritage Auctions for $6,000 in 2016.

It's actually smaller than how I imagined it to be from the OP image. Here is the description from Heritage Auction Website:

Amber with Inclusions
Hymenaea protera
Oligocene
Dominican Republic

This small lozenge size piece of Amber is water clear and pale yellow which makes it very easy to see the amazing ("praying") mantis preserved forever inside. The creature with its triangular head, bulging eyes, and flexible neck is clearly visible in the exceptional specimen of the fossilized tree resin. The insect with the unique characteristics is poetically singular in the otherwise pristine fossil remnant. A close-up photo of the bug gives further insight into this entombed mantis. This is a tiny specimen with a major inclusion.

Overall Measurements: 1.18 x 0.61 x 0.52 inches (3.00 x 1.56 x 1.32 cm)

[Scale: 1 inch, with mark at 1 cm]

Apparently, the buyer is open to offers via the same auction house.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

Thats so cool. I actually like your large bubbly flea better than the mantis. Mantis just seems a little too perfect hehe. if I may ask, how did you come to acquire that? I may be in the market for a large bubbly flea myself.

a reply to: Encia22

I should polish my piece If I had that kind of money I wouldn't mind having the Mantis .

originally posted by: Shoshanna
a reply to: Ravenwatcher

Thats so cool. I actually like your large bubbly flea better than the mantis. Mantis just seems a little too perfect hehe. if I may ask, how did you come to acquire that? I may be in the market for a large bubbly flea myself.

I got it from a action house I'm into geeky stuff lol

originally posted by: Terpene
a reply to: NorthOS

Exactly it's muséum stuff quality, so yeah where is that source for the first pic... If real That's not something you'll buy on eBay, but It's easy to do it with epoxy...

Good point, lots of convincing fakery around.

My coin dealer showed me a fake Chinese gold Canadian Maple beside a real one. No way of telling the difference.

It was gold plated and its weight and specific gravity were bang on.

a reply to: Zanti Misfit

Well done -- yours is the first post in the thread that's research-based instead of speculative.

I found this very simplified explanation online. How do insects get trapped in amber?

It can happen instantly. Mating flies trapped in amber

Bigger insects and other animals get stuck feet-first, then the resin covers and entombs them.

However, I'm a bit wary about the 'flash flood of resin' idea mentioned at the first link. It doesn’t sound terribly scientific to me. Unless they're talking about a 'flash flood' lasting hours...

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a reply to: MalOscp

The cedars and redwoods which produced the amber you see in these fossils produced so much sap because they were absolutely gigantic.

This is incorrect, I'm afraid. Prehistoric trees -- real trees, not tree-ferns and things like that -- were no bigger, on the whole, than modern ones. The size of a tree is determined by mechanical factors like gravity, material strength and capillarity, which have remained constant down the ages.

What if the mantis was hanging upside down and the resin flowed from the feet to the antennae? That would explain why they are so straight.
a reply to: Ravenwatcher

Off topic: I've been wondering why the thread title sounded familiar. Just now, the penny dropped.

I am Curious (Yellow)