Amber and the Cretaceous Resinous Interval

Taphonomy and palaeoenvironmental interpretation of a new amber-bearing outcrop from the mid-Cretaceous of the Maestrazgo Basin (E Iberian Peninsula)

“…It is possible that this kind of fungus-resin interaction originated along the Albian or depended on the environmental conditions of the forest soil. The abundance of fusinite indicates the development of palaeofires in the resiniferous forest (Sender et al, 2015), which in turn could have stimulated resin mass production (Delclòs et al, 2023).…”

“…The oldest known fossil resins date back to the Carboniferous (Bray & Anderson, 2009), and the oldest amber with bioinclusions is from the Triassic (Schmidt et al, 2012). However, amber deposits and amber pieces with bioinclusions become abundant and widely distributed since the Barremian, in the Cretaceous period (Delclòs et al, 2023). Resin mass production related to conifers occurred during a time range of 54 million years from the Barremian to the Campanian called 'Cretaceous Resinous Interval', presumably due to a combination of abiotic and biotic factors, which are currently under study (Delclòs et al, 2023).…”

“…However, amber deposits and amber pieces with bioinclusions become abundant and widely distributed since the Barremian, in the Cretaceous period (Delclòs et al, 2023). Resin mass production related to conifers occurred during a time range of 54 million years from the Barremian to the Campanian called 'Cretaceous Resinous Interval', presumably due to a combination of abiotic and biotic factors, which are currently under study (Delclòs et al, 2023). Cretaceous amber-bearing outcrops are mostly distributed to the Northern Hemisphere, and the most studied deposits are relegated to a few regions, such as western Canada, eastern USA, northeast Spain, western France, Lebanon, Taimyr Peninsula in Russia, and Myanmar (Martínez- Delclòs et al, 2004;Seyfullah et al, 2018;Delclòs et al, 2023).…”

“…Resin mass production related to conifers occurred during a time range of 54 million years from the Barremian to the Campanian called 'Cretaceous Resinous Interval', presumably due to a combination of abiotic and biotic factors, which are currently under study (Delclòs et al, 2023). Cretaceous amber-bearing outcrops are mostly distributed to the Northern Hemisphere, and the most studied deposits are relegated to a few regions, such as western Canada, eastern USA, northeast Spain, western France, Lebanon, Taimyr Peninsula in Russia, and Myanmar (Martínez- Delclòs et al, 2004;Seyfullah et al, 2018;Delclòs et al, 2023). Some Cenozoic ambers, mainly from the Eocene and Miocene, are known to be rich in bioinclusions (Penney, 2010;Solórzano-Kraemer et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2021).…”

The evolutionary history of Coleoptera (Insecta) in the late Palaeozoic and the Mesozoic

“…As pointed out by Grimaldi & Engel (2005), the Cretaceous was once one of the poorest known geological periods for insects but is now among the best known, with the number of discovered fossils still increasing with breathtaking speed, especially material included in burmite (e.g., Delclòs et al, 2023; Peris & Rust, 2020; Pohl et al, 2021; Ross, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023). The initial break up of Laurasia and Gondwana into the now‐existing continents occurred during this geological period (e.g., Grimaldi & Engel, 2005).…”