Dating Amber: Review and Perspective

Amber is a fossilized tree resin that ranges in age from the Carboniferous to Cenozoic. It occurs globally Arctic Antarctica. As petrifies and turns into amber, it can enclose preserve other materials. with inclusions help reconstruct past biodiversity ecosystems. Some amber contains fossils representing oldest most detailed records of critical evolutionary traits or markers. Inclusions even capture behavioral indicators previously only observed extant organisms. Evidence insect pollination flowering plants dragonfly mating behavior appears as does morphological specialization insects, indicating sociality social parasitism. Dating deposits calibrate events inform reconstructions While direct dating remains impossible, constraints on are based correlations relative dating, methods come significant uncertainties. This study discusses two cases using 40Ar/39Ar U–Pb geochronologic constrain ages China paleo-ecosystems they record. paper also summarizes how radio-isotopic techniques combined analysis elucidate biogeography dynamic relationship between life physical environment.