In the blockbuster 1993 film Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg’s screenwriters tell the story of scientists who recover dinosaur DNA from a mosquito entombed in amber and use it to clone the animals back into existence.
Today, a recent paleontological discovery comes to the very doorstep of that fictional tale, bringing much of the excitement, short of the impossibilities.
Two amber samples: one from below ground and one from the limbs of an ancient tree, show incredible 3D snapshots of life from 112 million years ago. 6 orders of arthropods are seen inside, including beetles, flies, and spiders encased within.
This entomological time capsule is only possible because of amber, a tree resin that when exposed to millions of years will harden into a crystalline structure. Sold as jewelry