Treasures unearthed
Ancient amber’s hidden secrets
A SCIENTIFIC analysis of fossilised tree resin from Anglesea and Tasmania has sparked a rethink of Australia’s prehistoric ecosystem.
The analysis, conducted by Deakin and Monash universities, could potentially lead to recovering preserved palaeobiological artefacts from the era of dinosaurs or prehistoric mammals.
Researchers from the Deakin Institute for Frontier Materials and Monash used nuclear magnetic resonance to research the makeup of samples of 50-million-year-old amber from Anglesea on the Surf Coast and Strahan on Tasmania’s west coast.
IFM senior lecturer in magnetic resonance, Luke O’Dell, said the amber captured a period in time during the Eocene Epoch, which was 56 to 33.9 million years ago, and was “an unparalleled method of preservation, providing insights into past organisms, ecosystems and environments”.
“Amber, also called resinite or fossilised resin, is organic material created through the fossilisation of the resins of seed plants,” Dr O’Dell said.
The research aimed to identify the original plant sources of amber at Anglesea and Strahan and to establish the way they degraded during their tens of millions of years underground.
“This degradation could potentially have a major impact on the preserved palaeobiological information contained within the samples, and the sort of information we can recover about Earth’s ancient past.”
Researchers from Monash conducted their chemical analysis using reflective and infrared spectroscopy.
Monash School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment honours student Andrew Coward, the study’s lead author, said the project could represent the first clear discovery of indigenous Class II amber in Australia.
“Our discovery of Class II amber from the Anglesea site could mean certain prehistoric plants capable of producing cadinene-based amber were native to Australia during the Eocene period, which is something that has never been proven.
“Another possibility is that there may even be an entirely new, previously unidentified botanical source capable of exuding cadinene resins.”