By Gabriela Gierlowska and Wieslaw Gierlowski, Gdansk, Poland.
In the middle of June 1997, on a wooded sand dune in Gdansk, Poland, Gabriela Gierlowska spotted a small amber piece with a unique lizard. The surface of the lump was strongly oxidized, mat, covered with a dark grey marsh sediment, and in its shape and size resembled an immature pine cone (rotten cones often accompany accumulations of amber). The cone-shaped piece was 50 x 35 x 14 mm in size, and on its longest side there was a depression filled with black silt.
Gabriela Gierlowska discovered the inclusion while polishing the stone. After removing the opaque, oxidized layer, inside a lump of homogenous, translucent amber, appeared a well-preserved lizard. The inlcusion enabled recognizing many anatomical details with an unaided eye, while stereomicroscope and macrophotography revealed still finer details.
After grinding, the size of the lump decreased to 38 x 29 x 10 mm, weighing 7 g. The lizard is incomplete: it lacks the tip of the tail and a considerable fragment of the back. The total length of the preserved animal is 37 mm.
The slightly upward-bent thorax and the missing part of the back indicate that after getting into a pool of liquid resin the lizard did not drown in it completely, and as a result, the parts sticking out were not mummified (Szadziewski 1998).
The piece with the unique lizard inclusion was deposited at the Museum of the Earth, Polish Academy of Science, in Warsaw, Poland, which commissioned to the Warsaw Technical University its examination with absorption spectroscopy in infrared in Perkin Elmer apparatus. The resulting IRS CM468 is typical of succinite (Baltic amber) which excludes forgery - a very common accurance in regard to lizards in fossil resins (Kosmowska-Ceranowicz, Kulicka, Gierlowska 1997).
frog
pine resin
Pine resin is an excellent preservative. Within its clear embrace, insects and small vertebrates may remain as perfect as the day they died, with fine hairs, scales and even stomach contents fixed for eternity. Fossilised pine resin, five million or more years old, is called amber. It has hardened and 'devolatilised', meaning most of the volatile aromatic chemicals have escaped.
This little dragon lizard (Diporiphora species) put a foot wrong and become entombed in pine resin. On scratching the surface a rich aroma of pine was released. This showed that the resin was modern and not true amber. Mr Dieter Ewartz brought it to the Queensland Museum's Inquiry Centre for identification. While he owned it for more than 30 years, its origin is unknown but there is every chance that it came from a Queensland rainforest.
More.....
http://www.fossilmall.com/Stonerelic/amber...mber/lizard.htm
In the middle of June 1997, on a wooded sand dune in Gdansk, Poland, Gabriela Gierlowska spotted a small amber piece with a unique lizard. The surface of the lump was strongly oxidized, mat, covered with a dark grey marsh sediment, and in its shape and size resembled an immature pine cone (rotten cones often accompany accumulations of amber). The cone-shaped piece was 50 x 35 x 14 mm in size, and on its longest side there was a depression filled with black silt.
Gabriela Gierlowska discovered the inclusion while polishing the stone. After removing the opaque, oxidized layer, inside a lump of homogenous, translucent amber, appeared a well-preserved lizard. The inlcusion enabled recognizing many anatomical details with an unaided eye, while stereomicroscope and macrophotography revealed still finer details.
After grinding, the size of the lump decreased to 38 x 29 x 10 mm, weighing 7 g. The lizard is incomplete: it lacks the tip of the tail and a considerable fragment of the back. The total length of the preserved animal is 37 mm.
The slightly upward-bent thorax and the missing part of the back indicate that after getting into a pool of liquid resin the lizard did not drown in it completely, and as a result, the parts sticking out were not mummified (Szadziewski 1998).
The piece with the unique lizard inclusion was deposited at the Museum of the Earth, Polish Academy of Science, in Warsaw, Poland, which commissioned to the Warsaw Technical University its examination with absorption spectroscopy in infrared in Perkin Elmer apparatus. The resulting IRS CM468 is typical of succinite (Baltic amber) which excludes forgery - a very common accurance in regard to lizards in fossil resins (Kosmowska-Ceranowicz, Kulicka, Gierlowska 1997).
frog
pine resin
Pine resin is an excellent preservative. Within its clear embrace, insects and small vertebrates may remain as perfect as the day they died, with fine hairs, scales and even stomach contents fixed for eternity. Fossilised pine resin, five million or more years old, is called amber. It has hardened and 'devolatilised', meaning most of the volatile aromatic chemicals have escaped.
This little dragon lizard (Diporiphora species) put a foot wrong and become entombed in pine resin. On scratching the surface a rich aroma of pine was released. This showed that the resin was modern and not true amber. Mr Dieter Ewartz brought it to the Queensland Museum's Inquiry Centre for identification. While he owned it for more than 30 years, its origin is unknown but there is every chance that it came from a Queensland rainforest.
More.....
http://www.fossilmall.com/Stonerelic/amber...mber/lizard.htm