Artifacts in Amber

[billbillt]

Hi All,
Before anyone gets carried away with artifacts in amber possibly being anything, they need to read "What Bugged The Dinosaurs?" by Drs. George and Roberta Poinar.. They proved SCIENTIFICALLY that the objects contained there are disappointing... Any insects in this amber WILL NOT be an extinct or primordial species...Insect evolution was basically finished before the Cretaceous period... What you would excise there would be the same insects that are on earth today... Any other mysterious shapes or dark spots contained there will be nothing more than a smidgen of ancient plant material or just plain DIRT... I know, it is fun to fantasize about interacting with something 65 myo, but that is all it would be... Daydreaming.. All of this has been covered on other forums many, many times.. Just because it surfaced AGAIN here does not mean the facts have changed..

[Rodney]

Hi Bill, do you have any amber samples you can show us under the scope, stereo scope would be neat.

Rodney

[JimT]

Billbilt, You just ruined the whole Jurassic Park theme for me I'm not going there for vacation this Summer

JimT

[actinophrys]

What you would excise there would be the same insects that are on earth today... Any other mysterious shapes or dark spots contained there will be nothing more than a smidgen of ancient plant material or just plain DIRT...

That seems a pessimistic take. It's true enough if you consider one fly or beetle as good as another, but for those who distinguish them there was still diversification happening. For instance the oldest known bee, Melittosphex, is an intermediate form not found today, and that was from amber in the middle of the Cretaceous.

Nor are plant parts necessarily without their interest. In fact in some cases leaves or cones are among the only indications what plants amber came from; unfortunately they are not that common, and for even types like Baltic amber the exact origin is still argued. But there are still other traces. A while back an amateur palaeontologist found the oldest known spider webs; feathers have been rare but are particularly exciting, since it appears some are not from birds but related dinosaurs.

I can't claim any of this should be expected by an amateur, who for all I know is setting themselves up for years of nothing but dirt and bubbles. But then it's not like your average fossil collector can expect to find much more than leaves or shell fragments on a usual hike. In both cases, those with enough knowledge, patience, and luck definitely still have discoveries waiting.

Edits: minor fixes.

[billbillt]

Hi actinophrys,
Certainly evolution of species is an ongoing process.... Amber captured samples are being made as we speak now (Cenozoic Age)..... It was determined By these scientists that amber samples that have been unearthed at the present time have all showed nary a sign of an insect found in the process of evolution... No extinct or strange looking finds were made... This is not to say that one is not waiting to be discovered in a piece of amber, just that the plant life that produced amber had not entered the evolutionary picture before the Cretaceous Age... I just wanted to save a possible disappointed crowd here as this "amber studies" circus looked to be about to start again here on THIS Forum.... It was beaten to death over weeks on another forum to the result that several people became irate over the length of it and the results being nil... The end result will be as predicted: nothing of interest will be found....

[billbillt]

Hi JimT,
Sorry to ruin your prospect of a Jurassic Park themed vacation!... Maybe you can go see "Jurassic World" at the movie theater which debuts today.. This might make you feel better!.... HA!HA!...

[Rodney]

I have studied amber for a good while now and I continue to find it interesting. All of the books on this subject are interesting but they do not share exactly the same information or always agree. All of this will depend on the researchers and what they agree on. Everything evolves from something else over time. So extinct species that don`t exist today have been found or said to be so. The question is who is correct. The debate will continue. Yes I did start an amber topic and as soon as I correct a photo problem I will place a few more pictures up.

Rodney

[billbillt]

Unless you can cite published scientific works that can be validated on opposing research, your comments have zero credibility.. It becomes no more than the usual empty bravado words with no substance to prove it.. Just saying something does not make it true to a thinking person..

[Rodney]

I`m not exactly sure what you are saying, but published works or the actual material can be looked at, studied, argued over, agreed on and sometimes all over the place in the middle. Not really my work but anyone that takes a look, experiments and has opinions or thoughts on anything of general. Scientist continue to argue/ debate over a wide range of issues. This little home study of amber I did back was done for my on interest and anyone else that may have had a little interest.

[billbillt]

You understand exactly what I said... You must show proof to back up your statements like I did.. If you can't do that, then all of your babbling is useless..