Amber refracted ancient ecological conditions hundreds of millions of years ago

BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua Zhang Mengran) -- Scientists have reported an analysis of the oldest known plants and animals preserved in "treasure" amber in a paleontological study published in the British journal Scientific Reports. The findings not only shed more information on the ecology of Australia and New Zealand from the late Tri-Tridation to the Paleo-1980s (230 million to 40 million years ago), but also opened a new "window" for the critical period of ecology and evolution chemistry.
Gonwana, a superconconse of South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Antarctica and Australia, separated from the superconconse known as Pangu about 200 million years ago. This time, researcher Jeffrey Stillwell of monash University in Australia and colleagues analyzed more than 5,800 pieces of amber from the West Tasmanian Macaulay Harbour formations in the early 1980s (about 54 million to 52 million years ago) and the Angie's Coal Line in Victoria, Australia, at the end of the Middle New Age (42 million to 40 million years ago).The
team described the oldest known ants in the southern gonwana, the rare mating of two of the "fixed" ambers the first fossils of the "slender bullettail worm" (a very small wingless hepent) found in Australia, and so on. Other creatures preserved in this "treasure" include a group of spider larvae, , two moss plants and two ferns.
At the same time, the team analyzed sediments found in southeastern Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, including amber from the oldest known pan-ancient continent 230 million years ago, rainforest deposits near Antarctica between 96 and 92 million years ago, and a complete felt python fossil between 54 million and 52 million years old.
researchers say the results provide new insights into ancient ecology and evolution, and suggest that other similar discoveries are likely in Australia and New Zealand in the future.