A golden drop of resin has provided an opening to an ancient world. Researchers have unearthed ancient amber in Ecuador containing insects and plants that date back to 112 million years ago and show unusual information about life in Gondwana's southern forests.
What does this discovery reveal about ancient life?
Researchers have announced the first find of amber in South America containing preserved insects. The samples, unearthed from a quarry in Ecuador, are described in Communications Earth & Environment. This discovery captures a scene from a Cretaceous forest that thrived 112 million years ago on Gondwana, offering a new look into ecosystems that remain little known.
Amber, a fossilised form of tree resin, can date back as far as 320 million years. Scientists have witnessed a dramatic rise in the occurrence of amber between 120 million and 70 million years ago, a time spanning most of the Cretaceous period. Its distinctive advantage is that it captures ancient life forms inside, holding together insects, flowers, and pieces of plants that would otherwise be beyond retrieval by time.
Why is the Ecuador find important to science?
So far, nearly all the significant amber deposits with biological inclusions were from the Northern Hemisphere. This imbalance left scientists with not much knowledge about Cretaceous diversity in the south, when current continents were breaking up off Gondwana.
Xavier Delclòs and his collaborators investigated the examples of amber and host rock from Ecuador's Oriente Basin at the Genoveva quarry. The amber, which is 112 million years old, is of Hollín Formation origin. Two different types were found: one that developed below ground near roots of trees and another developed when resin was exposed to the air.
From 60 aerial amber samples, researchers isolated 21 inclusions from five orders of insects, such as Diptera (flies), Coleoptera (beetles), and Hymenoptera (ants and wasps). They also found a fragment of spider web and other plant fossils like pollen, spores, and fragments.
What does it say about Gondwana's forests?
The composition of the inclusions and vegetation implies that the amber was deposited in a warm, densely forested climate controlled by resin-producing trees in southern Gondwana. The study, according to the researchers, is crucial evidence for interpreting ancient southern ecosystems and their history.
The paper, "Cretaceous amber of Ecuador unveils new insights into South America's Gondwanan forests," by Xavier Delclòs and others, appeared on 18 September 2025 in Communications Earth & Environment.
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