Episode 108: Strange Things Found in Amber
b"Thanks to Nicholas for suggesting this week\\u2019s episode topic! Lots of strange and fascinating insects and other animals are found trapped in amber. So what is amber, how does it preserve animal parts, and most importantly, what have scientists found in amber?\\n\\nA millipede preserved in amber, one of 450 millipedes discovered in Myanmar amber. Somebody had to count them:\\n\\n\\n\\nA newly described insect that got its own order because it's so weird. Look at that triangular head with giant eyeballs!\\n\\n\\n\\nA mushroom, a hair, and a tiny phasmid exoskeleton, all caught in amber:\\n\\n\\n\\nShow transcript:\\n\\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\\n\\nLast month I released an episode about trace fossils, and listener Nicholas wrote me to suggest I also do an episode about amber\\u2014specifically, the animals and other items that were trapped in amber and preserved inside it when the amber fossilized. Nicholas also sent me lots of links to really interesting articles!\\n\\nAmber is the term for fossilized tree resin. If you\\u2019ve ever climbed a pine tree and ended up with pine sap all over your hands, which is impossible to get off by just washing your hands and is super sticky and picks up every bit of dirt, you\\u2019ll have an idea of what amber starts out as and why it sometimes has insects and other stuff in it. Despite the name pine sap, it\\u2019s not actually sap. Sap is the fluid that carries nutrients around to a plant\\u2019s cells, sort of like plant blood. Resin is secreted by certain trees and other plants for various reasons, including to protect it from insect damage, to kill fungus, to seal off a broken branch or other injury, and to taste bad so herbivores won\\u2019t eat it.\\n\\nThere are different types of amber, because there are different plants that produce resin. We don\\u2019t always know what species of plant a particular type of amber comes from, since many are now extinct and can\\u2019t be directly studied. Conifer trees evolved around 300 million years ago but became really successful during the Mesozoic around 250 million years ago, spreading throughout the world and dripping resin all over the place. Conifers include pine trees, fir trees, hemlocks, yews, larches, junipers, cedars, redwoods, spruces, and lots of other trees and shrubs that are still widespread today. Some flowering plants, mostly trees, also produce resins. But before conifers evolved and outcompeted them, plants called medullosales lived around the world and produced resin too. Medullosales first appear in the fossil record around 360 million years ago and mostly died out around 298 million years ago. They\\u2019re all extinct now.\\n\\nIf your name is Amber, by the way, you are named for fossilized tree resin. That sounds gross, but amber has been prized for millennia as a gemstone. When polished, it can be a gorgeous yellow, gold, or brown, often the color of honey. But some amber is other colors, including red, blue, or green. It all depends on what tree originally produced the resin, its chemical makeup, and how it was fossilized.\\n\\nSo how does the resin fossilize? Sometimes it would drip onto the ground, become buried, and fossilize along with the ground around it. Sometimes the resin-producing tree would fall, become buried, and the resin inside would fossilize along with the wood. Sometimes the resin would drip into water, float to a quiet area or sink to the bottom of the pool or lagoon, and fossilize along with the sand and other sediment that covered it. This is why so much amber is found in the ocean, by the way. Once fossilized, amber floats in salt water\\u2014just barely, but enough that on some beaches it\\u2019s commonly washed up with the tide. People collect the pieces of amber to polish and sell. Amber can also be burned and often gives off a musky, piney scent that has been used in religious ceremonies.\\n\\nThe reason we\\u2019re talking about fossilized plant material in an animal podcast is that amber sometimes has insects or other small animals or animal parts i..."