Amber is a rare specimen that preserves ancient water, bubbles, plants, insects and even birds, and is coveted around the world as both a gem and container for prehistoric debris.
Usually, amber forms for millions of years as wood resins become fossilized, but paleontologists are energizing it, creating amber fossils from pine resin in 24 hours. This technique can help clarify as Amber's biochemistry is formed. This is a process that remains hidden in prehistoric mist.
The results of the rapid experiment, published Monday in the journal Scientific Reports, resemble meals made in a pressure cooker. “It's similar to Instapot,” said Evan Saitta, a researcher at the Field Museum in Chicago and co-author of the paper.
The synthetic amber recipe began with Chicago Botanical Garden Pine Resin. Dr. Saitta and his co-author, independent paleontologist Thomas Kaye, placed a half-inch sediment disc with Mr. Kaye embedded in which the resin was constructed using a medical tablet compressor, an air canister and other cleaned parts.
By heating the sample and applying pressure, researchers were trying to simulate the product. This was trying to limit the slow, wet physical and chemical transformations needed to the rock before sediments could be integrated into the rock.
“Making it is the ultimate hurdle you need to pass to become a fossil,” said Dr. Saita. “It's kind of the last boss.”
Although some samples produced by the researchers were incomplete, the physical properties of some ambers include darker colours, fractures, dehydration, and increased gloss.
The two also realized that they started with the wrong family of pine trees. The most studied amber in paleontology is a group of scientists and their only living relatives are the pine trees of the Japanese umbrella.
Maria McNamara, a paleontologist at University College Cork in Ireland, said future experiments should test additional plant types as they were not involved in the study.
“What we really want to handle is that the resin polymerizes faster,” she said. She also pointed out that accelerated chemical analysis of Amber is necessary to know how close it is to the real thing. “Wood resin survives, but requires proper and complete chemical properties,” she said.
Regarding the limitations of all research, Dr. McNamara said fossil simulation is an increasingly important area of research. Some paleontologists have recreated bone or tissue collapse to explore microbial effects. In her lab, researchers have “thermally mature” specimens to investigate the conservation of biological molecules under heat.
Without such simulations, “we just trust the fossil records,” she said. “Experiments can help tell facts from fiction and determine the extent to which the fossil records are lying.”
Dr. Saita tried other simulations. In 2018 he buried the finches in wet deposits to see how it was compressed. It was awkward and failed. However, after working with Kay on a pressure cooker device, they managed to study the early stages of fossilization of leaves, feathers and lizard legs. For example, in these specimens, keratin from the feathers leached out in feathers, leaving behind a dark, melanin-like engraving similar to fossilized feathers. (At the conference, Dr. Saitta said he likes to test other paleontologists and find the visual difference between analogues and real fossils.)
In future amber experiments, Dr. Saita aims to embed insects, wings, or plants in the resin. One reason why this can be proven useful is that the actual specimen is valuable, meaning it is a trade of thousands of dollars, making disruptive analysis unfeasible. “Preserved insects in synthetic amber would not be valuable because it is made in the laboratory,” Dr. Saita said.
Researchers also plan to apply pressure on decayed organic matter and adapt the technology to simulate geological weathering. This will capture more fossilization stages more realistically.
Looking further, experimental fossilization techniques allow scientists to even explore the fossils of the future, Dr. Saitta said. How does life in the Anthropocene become fossilized? What happens to tissue or bones that have been injected with microplastics or industrial heavy metals?
We are not here in millions of years from now. However, using devices like pressure aids can get you closer.
