50-Million-Year-Old Amber yeilds 700 New Species of Ancient Insect

The discovery of 150kg of amber from an ancient rainforest in India has proven to be pure gold for scientists , as in cased in the amber are the preserved remains wood and insects that lived some 50 million years ago .
The discovery gives a new insight into the geology of the planet and the diversity of rain forests at that time , pushing back the date that scientists believed this type of tropical rainforest existed , previously it was thought to be about 20 million years but this discovery looks set to push that date back another 30-40 million years .
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b07b605c5494.jpg[/atsimg]

But besides the rainforest's age and India's biogeography, the most astonishing part of the discovery was the huge number of perfectly preserved specimens of insects, most of which have never been seen before. Unlike other types of amber found in deposits in the north, the Indian amber is much softer. This unique property allowed the scientists to completely dissolve the amber using solvents - toluene and chloroform - and extract the ancient insects, plants and fungi. "We have complete, three-dimensionally preserved specimens that are 52 million years old and you can handle them almost like living ones," said Dr Rust. "Of course they are very fragile, but it is still astonishing. "We have several examples where it is possible to get a complete specimen out. And of course this opens a new dimension in investigations of this material.

www.bbc.co.uk...
How cool is that ......

Very nice, I'm curious to the nature of the fungi that was preserved in that sample.

Reminds me of a movie I saw quite a few years ago, lets hope they didn't find any mosquitoes.

Maybe they can come up with a way to find a cure for some kind of disease from one of these species from 50 million years ago? Either way to me this is remarkable and a step towards knowing what went on with our earth from so long ago.

Originally posted by Namit
Reminds me of a movie I saw quite a few years ago, lets hope they didn't find any mosquitoes.

Finding any sort of creature in 50,000,000 year old amber is astounding.
Now finding 700 species.

Incredible.

very nice find hope we learn learn allot from theses

Originally posted by Namit
Reminds me of a movie I saw quite a few years ago, lets hope they didn't find any mosquitoes.

Bet there was some sort of blood sucker if there 50 million years old lets hope they don't do what they did in that movie or if they do at least put it on an island

Very interesting,

50 million years old wow.

I could not see the date on the amber must be on the other side.

I guess that the ant is different from the ones today so hey that means it is old.

Extinction means old

Very nice discovery! Did they use carbon dating or something to determine the age of the specimens?

I wonder if they could re-create any of these species?

reply to post by The Sword


contenderministries.org...

First, for carbon-14 dating to be accurate, one must assume the rate of decay of carbon-14 has remained constant over the years. However, evidence indicates that the opposite is true. Experiments have been performed using the radioactive isotopes of uranium-238 and iron-57, and have shown that rates can and do vary. In fact, changing the environments surrounding the samples can alter decay rates.

And this is only one faulty assumptions, what about leaching, what was the carbon 14 content of the organism at the time of death ect. ect.

These assumptions are also with all of the dating methods.

Cool find. Love that we keep learning new things about the past.
Never stop looking...

reply to post by ACTS 2:38


Whether or not the results of the carbon dating are accurate/inaccurate... We can safely assume that the specimens are pretty old... I could understand if you debunked 1 type of insect but we're talking about 700 new species here....

Well, they could find a cure for a disease in there. However, they might also find a disease we have no cure for.

Does anyone else get that Jurassic park feeling , ancient insects recovered from amber , DNA sequencing of the last meal of a blood sucker [ their must be at least a couple in there ] scientists to busy thinking whether they could instead of whether they should ....real life is generally stranger than fiction and the fact that they are removing these things from the Amber must give rise to the possibility .

Great thread , those are the type of threads that I come to ATS to read about . I just love new discoveries , especially unique ones like this . I wonder if they find some mutant killer virus in those insects .

reply to post by Thill


Given that microbes can theoretically survive the harsh environment of space I would imagine that being trapped in Amber for 50 million years should be no big deal , just waiting for someone to come along and release them .
One would hope they are removing these things in a controlled environment and considering the bio hazard risk

Awesome find, it's incredible how much we find out about our little rock every year that goes by. It would be fantastic if a cure for certain diseases could be found but what scares me a little is....What if a "new" old virus is releases while exploring these new finds. Everyone knows that a virus can stay dormant for long period of time so imagine if it were encased in amber, sealed from any oxygen and kept from decaying.....

reply to post by gortex


Fascinating stuff !

To hell with cryogenics ..... I want to be encased in amber when I die

"There are tonnes of amber [in this Indian deposit], and what is interesting about it is that it was produced in the tropics, the most highly diverse areas in respect to species diversity," said Dr Rust."



With tonnes of amber at their disposal, the researcher said his team hoped to uncover many more secrets of the peculiar world that existed millions of years ago.

source

Tonnes more amber ....

Originally posted by ACTS 2:38
reply to post by The Sword

 

contenderministries.org...

First, for carbon-14 dating to be accurate, one must assume the rate of decay of carbon-14 has remained constant over the years. However, evidence indicates that the opposite is true. Experiments have been performed using the radioactive isotopes of uranium-238 and iron-57, and have shown that rates can and do vary. In fact, changing the environments surrounding the samples can alter decay rates.

And this is only one faulty assumptions, what about leaching, what was the carbon 14 content of the organism at the time of death ect. ect.

These assumptions are also with all of the dating methods.

Didn't they try carbon-dating an airport tarmac and come up with 250k years old or something totally off?