Amber does not record the true past biodiversity of an entire forest, but it accurately preserves that of the organisms in its environment



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## Amber does not record the true past biodiversity of an entire forest, but it accurately preserves that of the organisms in its environment

22/06/2018 |
SCP

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Image resource ambar-insectes DSCN1526
Current slide

Image resource ambar-insectes 1breaSacaramy-hymenea2H1-30abril20151

Image resource ambar-insectes IMG\_1629

Image resource ambar-insectes IMG\_1667

* [![ ambar-insectes DSCN1526](/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2018/6/ambar-insectes/DSCN1526.JPG)](#)
* [![ ambar-insectes 1breaSacaramy-hymenea2H1-30abril20151](/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2018/6/ambar-insectes/1breaSacaramy-hymenea2H1-30abril20151.JPG)](#)
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* [![ ambar-insectes IMG_1667](/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2018/6/ambar-insectes/IMG_1667.JPG)](#)

A team of researchers has shown that amber does not record the true past about the biodiversity of an entire forest. Compared to other modes of fossil preservation, resin preserves the anatomy and ecological interactions between ancient soft-bodied organisms with exceptional fidelity, but does not accurately show the composition of arthropod forest paleocommunities, due to crucial biases in fossilization processes (taphonomic).

Field work has been carried out with arthropods (mainly insects and spiders) that live around the resinous angiosperm tree *Hymenaea verrucosa Gaertn*, located in a forest on the coast of Madagascar. Direct comparison has allowed the research team to evaluate the role of specific taphonomic processes and determine whether resins contain an accurate record of the community of arthropods of the forest or they preferably show microenvironments, ecological behaviours or particular taxonomic categories.

The results of the study carried out jointly by a team of eight researchers from research centres and universities in Germany, Spain and the United States show that resin records are more similar to the yellow adhesive traps placed on the production plants that the fall or flight interception traps located around it. It provides an accurate representation of the arthropod fauna that live in or near the resiniferous tree, but not of all forest arthropod communities, indicating that the habitat and the behaviour of organisms are factors that influence the possibility of being trapped in resin.

Moths and butterflies are among the fauna with low representation in resin. According to the researchers, this is because there are few butterflies that rest in the bark of trees and can be trapped by resin, but if so, the ants would probably eat them before being completely englobed in resin. However, some groups of insects are overrepresented, such as book lice (psocoptera), which are much more common in resin samples than in any of the traps, perhaps due to their higher activity in the bark of trees, although this aspect has not been studied carefully.

Samples of organisms trapped in resin differ slightly from organisms trapped with sticky traps, perhaps because the chemical compounds in the resins attract or repel specific groups of insects. Specifically, the caryophyllene compound, found in the resin of this tree, acts on different trees as a defence against herbivores, including some ants, termites and various orders of insects. Terrestrial or flying arthropods that use the trunk for feeding or reproduction are well represented within the resin, implying that fossil inclusions in amber can reveal fundamental information about the biology and ecology of the past.

Studying the fidelity of the capture in resin has implications for the robustness of the paleoecological interpretations made from the fossil record of various ambers around the world. The findings of this study provide a framework for interpreting the fossil communities of ancient amber deposits produced by angiosperms and allow for more precise paleoecological reconstructions that may explain some peculiar or unexpected aspects of life in the past.

Resin was collected with remains of organisms conserved inside 12 different trunks of trees of *Hymenaea verrucosa Gaertn* and of leaf litter found in a forest near the Canal des Pangalanes, in the community of Ambahy (Nosy Varika, Mananjary region), on the East coast of Madagascar. The adhesive traps were yellow, odourless and with a sticky surface free of insecticides and they remained in the field for eight days.

**Publication:**

**Do fossil resins accurately record forest arthropod paleocommunities?** PNAS May 7, 2018. 201802138; published ahead of print May 7, 2018. <https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1802138115>

**Autoría: Mónica M. Solórzano Kraemera, Xavier Delclòsb, Matthew E. Claphamc, Antonio Arillod, David Perise, Peter Jägera, Frauke Stebnerf, Enrique Peñalverg**

aSenckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. bDept. Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà, Facultat de Ciències de la Terra, and Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Universitat de Barcelona. cDept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California –Santa Cruz, USA. dDpto. de Zoología y Antropología Física, Facultad de Biología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. eDept. de Ciències Agràries i del Medi Natural, Universitat Jaume I de Castellón. fDepartment of Entomology, State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, Germany. gMuseo Geominero, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, València.

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