In a piece of amber in Cretaceous period about 65438+ billion years ago, scientists discovered a mysterious flower, which is one of the oldest known flowers so far. Of course, its species has long been extinct, and only it happens to be preserved in amber, and it has been well preserved to this day.
Speaking of it, amber is a very magical "time machine", in which scientists have found many precious prehistoric creatures, and their existence has also restored a real prehistoric world for us.
What is amber? Simply put, it is resin. Generally, the creatures in amber are very coincidental, because the resin dripping is only a moment, and at the moment of dripping, it can just wrap a prehistoric creature and keep the most complete shape, just like making a specimen, which has to be said to be amazing.
Speaking of it, in the process of studying the evolutionary history of the earth and biological evolution, many important discoveries are actually related to amber. For example, through the study of amber in Tibet, scientists were surprised to find that there are even representative plants of tropical rain forests-Dipterocarpaceae plants.
This means that before the formation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the alpine Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was once a tropical rainforest with suitable temperature, humidity and richness. If Amber didn't bring us real evidence, obviously, it would be unimaginable. After all, anyone who sees the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau today will not think of the tropical rain forest.
The prehistoric animal world in amber
What prehistoric creatures did scientists find in amber? A few years ago, scientists found a piece of amber more than 20 million years ago in the Dominican Republic, located in the eastern part of Hispaniola Island in the Caribbean. There was a drop of blood from a prehistoric spider in it.
In addition, in 20 12, a piece of amber wrapped with mites was found in northeast Italy. Through research, scientists were surprised to find that the mites wrapped in amber actually came from 230 million years ago.
There are many similar situations. At the beginning of the article, we mentioned that scientists found a piece of amber from 65.438 billion years ago, including 65.438+0 flowers from 65.438 billion years ago. Speaking of it, scientists study the evolutionary history of flowers, and a lot of evidence is obtained from amber, because as early as 2065.438+04, it was discovered from.
At that time, it was found in Myanmar, where there were not only 1. 1 100 million years ago, but even more amazing, there were 1.8 small flowers with different postures in this amber collection. This discovery also means that as early as the early Cretaceous, there were many flowers on the earth, and the species were very rich.
In addition to the intact prehistoric animals preserved in amber, researchers also found many "parts" of prehistoric animals in amber. For example, 20 1 1, Canadian scientists found dinosaur feathers in a piece of amber, which is also considered as one of the best evidences that birds originated from dinosaurs.
More interestingly, scientists also found prehistoric viruses in amber, at least 654.38+0.5 million years ago. Through microscopic observation, scientists discovered its existence, which helped us to have a new understanding of prehistoric viruses.
It can be said that without the magical "time machine" of amber, we might miss many precious prehistoric creatures, or we might miss many links in studying the evolution of life on earth, and there is no way to sort them out like today. Then, why can many amber be preserved for hundreds of millions of years, and the creatures inside can still be "lifelike"?
Why don't creatures in amber rot?
To answer this question, we need to look at another question first: why do the bodies of creatures in nature rot? Speaking of it, the process of decomposing a biological corpse is the process of being decomposed by microorganisms. When all the organic matter in the body is decomposed, only inorganic matter remains, and it will not rot any more.
It can be seen from this that the existence of microorganisms is the key to the decay of biological corpses. For example, if the corpse of a creature is in a completely vacuum environment without any microorganisms and pollution, it will not rot at all as long as the environment meets the standards.
So, what does this have to do with amber? The reason why the creatures in amber don't rot is because there are no microorganisms in it. In this way, even if the organism is wrapped in resin and becomes amber when it is alive, it will not rot at all, because microorganisms cannot survive in amber, and naturally there is no way to decompose organic matter in the organism.
Since organic matter can't be decomposed, it can always be well preserved. Speaking of it, once amber is formed, the interior is a completely sealed and isolated environment. Water, air, external environment, etc. can't pollute the interior of amber at all, resulting in the creatures in amber being sealed for hundreds of millions of years.
In addition, some friends who usually like to study amber will find that although the creatures in amber are well preserved without any signs of decay, they all look "dehydrated". What's going on here? Did anyone "mummify" these creatures before turning them into amber specimens?
The answer is of course no, which is also one of the wonders of nature. In fact, this question is easy to answer, mainly related to the chemical composition of amber. What is the chemical composition of amber? The answers are terpinene, alcohol and ether. Because they are volatile, when the resin wraps the organism, it will naturally take away the water in the organism, which makes these amber samples look like "dehydration" over time.
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