Amber—a moment in time 100 mya

Amber, showing most large inclusions/NIGPAS

Life forms trapped in amber—hardened resin from conifers—can show remarkable examples of stasis: No real change from one ten-million-year span to the next one. Sometimes a number of different types of life forms get trapped:

The ammonite, a kind of sea animal, was trapped in 99-million-year-old amber from northern Myanmar. The amber is 33 mm long, 9.5 mm wide, 29 mm high and weighs 6.08 g. Besides the ammonite, the amber also encases a diverse assemblage of organisms that today live on land or in the sea, including at least 40 individual animals.

Of the terrestrial fauna found in the amber, mites are the most abundant. Also present are spiders, millipedes, cockroaches, beetles, flies and wasps, most of which would have lived on the forest floor.

Of the marine fauna, in addition to the ammonite itself, sea snails and sea slaters are present. The slaters are like those living on the seashore today. “Coastal organisms trapped in 99-million-year-old amber” at Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters

Researchers were at first puzzled by the presence of marine as well as terrestrial animals. It seems that trees growing near a seashore provided the resin that formed the amber.

Note that “The slaters are like those living on the seashore today.” In a world that—we are told—features unceasing change, we find so many examples of stasis, no change. For example, Millipedes Found In 100 Mya Amber Comprise 13 Of 16 Known Groups and Spider in amber is 49 million-year-old member of living genus

See also: Beetle trapped in amber 99 mya offers window into prehistoric ecology So, in another instance of “earlier than thought,” pollination seems to have preceded flowering plants.

Stasis: Dinosaur-era baby snake looks just like modern ones

“Live action” captured in a spider’s web from 100 million years ago

How did 20-30 myo salamander in amber get IN there?

and

Stasis: Life goes on but evolution does not happen

Sea slater:

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