Cretaceous African life captured in amber

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 107; no. 16; pp. 7329 - 7334
• Main Authors: Schmidt, Alexander R., Perrichot, Vincent, Svojtka, Matthias, Anderson, Ken B., Belete, Kebede H., Bussert, Robert, Dörfelt, Heinrich, Jancke, Saskia, Mohr, Barbara, Mohrmann, Eva, Nascimbene, Paul C., Nel, André, Nel, Patricia, Ragazzi, Eugenio, Roghi, Guido, Saupe, Erin E., Schmidt, Kerstin, Schneider, Harald, Selden, Paul A., Vávra, Norbert, Dilcher, David L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 20-04-2010; National Acad Sciences
• Subjects: Africa; Age; Amber; Angiosperms; Animals; Ants; Araneae; Arthropoda; Arthropods; Biodiversity; Biological Evolution; Biological Sciences; Earth Sciences; Ecology; Ecosystem; Ecosystems; Ethiopia; Evolution; Female; Ferns; Forests; Formicidae; Fossils; Fungi; Geographical distribution; Geography; Habitat; Hymenoptera; Insect ecology; Male; Models, Biological; Paleontology; Paleontology - methods; Physical Sciences; Preservation; Radiation; Resins; Sciences of the Universe; Spiders; Terrestrial ecosystems; Ethiopia; Africa; Hexapoda; Arachnida; paleoecology; microorganisms; Ethiopia
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1000948107

Amber is of great paleontological importance because it preserves a diverse array of organisms and associated remains from different habitats in and close to the amber-producing forests. Therefore, the discovery of amber inclusions is important not only for tracing the evolutionary history of lineages with otherwise poor fossil records, but also for elucidating the composition, diversity, and ecology of terrestrial paleoecosystems. Here, we report a unique find of African amber with inclusions, from the Cretaceous of Ethiopia. Ancient arthropods belonging to the ants, wasps, thrips, zorapterans, and spiders are the earliest African records of these ecologically important groups and constitute significant discoveries providing insight into the temporal and geographical origins of these lineages. Together with diverse microscopic inclusions, these findings reveal the interactions of plants, fungi and arthropods during an epoch of major change in terrestrial ecosystems, which was caused by the initial radiation of the angiosperms. Because of its age, paleogeographic location and the exceptional preservation of the inclusions, this fossil resin broadens our understanding of the ecology of Cretaceous woodlands.