The true coloring of the insects from 99 million years ago has been exposed thanks to a research team from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS).
Colors offer many clues about animal behavior and ecology. He study has been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Thousands of amber fossils have been seen so far, but The preservation of color in these specimens is extraordinary.
Fossils
The rare set of amber fossils includes cuckoo wasps with metallic colors of bluish green, yellowish green, purplish blue or green on the head, thorax, abdomen and legs. The researchers used diamond blades to cut the exoskeleton of two of the colorful amber wasps and a sample of normal opaque cuticle.
The type of color preserved in amber fossils is called structural color. It is caused by the microscopic structure of the animal's surface. Understanding the coloration of long-extinct animals can help us shed light on ecosystems in the deep geological past. In total there are 35 pieces of amber with insects exquisitely preserved from an amber mine in northern Myanmar.
According to Cai Chenyang, associate professor at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology (NIGPAS), China, who led the study:
The amber is from the middle Cretaceous, approximately 99 million years old, and dates back to the golden age of the dinosaurs. It is essentially resin produced by ancient coniferous trees that grew in a rainforest environment. Animals and plants trapped in the thick resin were preserved, some of them with true fidelity.
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The news
Insects from 99 million years ago retain all their color thanks to amber
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.