You can do amber fossils in 24 hours, instead of millions of years

Amber is coveted all over the world both as jewels and a ship for prehistoric remains, with rarer specimens that preserve ancient water, air bubbles, plant, insects or even birds.

Generally, the amber form over millions of years while the resin of the fossily trees, but paleontologists accelerated it, creating amber -shaped fossils from the pine resin in 24 hours. The technique could help to reveal Amber’s biochemistry as it forms, a process that would otherwise remain hidden in the fog of prehistory.

Published Monday in The scientific diary reportsThe results of the rapid fossil -fossil experiment are similar to a meal made in a pressure cooker. “He is similar to an Setapot,” said Evan Saitta, a researcher associated with the Field Museum in Chicago and co -author of the document.

The recipe for synthetic amber began with pine resin from the Chicago botanical garden. Dr. Saitta and her co -author, Thomas Kaye, independent paleontologist, placed half -inch sediments discs in which the resin was incorporated into an Mr. Kaye device built using a compressor of medical pills, air containers and other cracked parts.

Both the heating and the pressure on the samples, the researchers were trying to simulate diagenesis, the physical and chemical transformation slow and humid request before the sediments consolidate in the rock.

“Diagenesis is the last obstacle that you have to pass to become a fossil,” said Dr. Saitta. “It’s a kind of final boss.”

Some samples produced by the researchers were imperfect, but some physical properties of Amber echoed, such as dark coloring, fracture lines, dehydration and increase in shine.

The two also realized that they had started with the wrong family of Pino. The amber most often studied in paleontology is awoman, a group of trees whose Only the living relative is the Japanese umbrella pine.

Maria McNamara, paleontologist of the University College Cork in Ireland that was not involved in the study, said that future experiments should test further types of plants.

“What we really want to have a management is on which resins polymerize faster,” he said. He also stressed that a chemical analysis of accelerated ambrae was needed to find out how close it was – or not – for real things. “The resin of the trees has survived, but we need adequate and full chemical characterization,” he said.

For all the limits of the study, dr. McNamara said that simulated fossilization was an increasingly important research area. Some paleontologists have recreated Decay of bone or tissues to explore the microbial effects. In his laboratory, the researchers have “Thermally accrued specimens “ To study the conservation of biological molecules under heat.

Without such simulations, “we only trust the fossil record,” he said. “The experiments help us to tell the facts from fiction and determine the measure that the fossil documentation is lying.”

Dr. Saitta tried other simulations. In 2018, he buried A FRINGUELLO In wet sediments to see how compact it would be. It was disordered and without success. But after working with Mr. Kaye on the pressure device, they had more success by studying the early stages of fossilization of Leaves, feathers and feet of lizard. With those specimens, the keratin in a feather, for example, has been lisciviate, leaving a dark imprint similar to melanin similar to a fossilized feather. (At the conferences, Dr. Saitta said, he likes to test other paleontologists to identify the visual difference between a simulating and a real fossil.)

In future amber experiments, Dr. Saitta aims to incorporate insects, feathers or plants in the resin. One of the reasons why this could prove useful is that the real specimens are precious – some exchanges for thousands of dollars – making destructive analysis impossible. “An insect preserved in synthetic amber would not be precious, since it would be made in the laboratory,” said Dr. Saitta.

The researchers also plan to adapt their technique to the pressure organic material and simulate geological atmospheric agents. This is more realistically capturing more stages of fossilization.

Looking back later, experimental fossilization techniques can even allow scientists to explore the fossils of the future, said Dr. Saitta. How it will do it Anthropocene life fossilize? What would happen to fabrics or bones infused with microplastic or industrial heavy metals?

We will not be here in millions of years to find out. But with a device similar to a pressure cooker, we could get closer.