53 Million Years of History Trapped Inside Indian Amber

University of Bonn paleontologist, Professor Dr. Jes Rust and his colleagues, have found a huge deposit of amber on the coast of NW India's Gujarat province, which continues to give more insight on what happened millions of years ago.

The researchers said that after analyzing some of the insects found inside the amber, it seems that the Indian sub-continent was not as isolated as it was previously thought.

For the past two years, Rust and his team have been looking at this huge amber deposit and they have found many insect bodies, some very well preserved even if they have been trapped for 50 million years.

And as “the amber has not been completely polymerized” it can be dissolved easily, releasing its precious content.

Until now, the researchers have found over 700 arthropods from 55 different genera, insects for the majority but also spiders, mites and plant parts.

What they also concluded was that the sub-continent was not completely isolated at sea and that species traveled freely from one place to another, before the amber formed.

Also, it would appear that the resin comes from the family of Dipterocarpaceae, which can be found today in the Indo-Malayan region, and this means that the plant did exist over 50 million years ago.

The generally accepted theory is that the Indian sub-continent broke off from the East African land mass some 160 million years ago and floated through the oceans with a speed of 20 cm a year.

Nearly 50 million years ago, India collided with Asia and from the impact, the Himalayas were born.

If this theory was correct, India would have been isolated for 100 million years – plenty of time for new and unique species to develop.

The only problem is that because of this 53-million-years-old amber deposit, this theory doesn't stand anymore.

The insect fossils found in Gujarat are similar to those found in Europe and even in Central America so Rust thinks “this indicates that there was a lively exchange of species before our amber formed.”

Another theory says that, just like today's Japan or Indonesia, there might have been long chains of volcanic islands on the border between the continental plates, so the insects from India and Asia could have simply mingled, by flying from island to island.

As for the amber itself, it is proof that the family of Dipterocarpaceae, did not peak 25 million years ago, but it apparently even existed over 50 million years ago.

“That is a big surprise,” Professor Rust said.