Amber is a kind of fossil made from resin. Resin is a substance that plants and trees produce to help protect themselves from disease and injuries. A tree might produce resin when a branch is broken or an insect harms the tree. In addition to preserving ancient animals, amber is also incredibly beautiful. Humans have been using amber for thousands of years; the earliest example of this dates to 11,000 BCE in England. Today it is often used in jewelry. Ancient Egyptians used it for decoration as well; it has been found in tombs as early as 3,200 BCE. Another popular use for Amber thousands of years ago was as medicine.
- Amber is a translucent orange-yellow.
- It is a gem but not a gemstone.
- The amber produced by the Paleogene Forest is the largest deposit of amber in the world. It is also considered the highest quality of amber in the world. It is called Baltic amber. Most amber is between 30 and 90 million years old.
- Ancient Egyptians called amber the “Tears of Ra.”
- Amber can come in 300 colors.
- The color is determined by the plant material in the amber and by the amount of sunlight that it was exposed to while it was forming.
- Amber is clearer the more sunlight it is exposed to.
- Amber can be burned, and it smells like pine.
It is very sticky, so sometimes debris and insects can get caughtin it. If the resin fossilizes then the resin and whatever is stuck inside it are preserved for thousands of years. Frogs, lizards, bird feathers and pieces of small mammals, insects and even a dinosaur feather have all been found in fossilized amber. ese fossils are not only beautiful; they also contain a lot of information for scientists. They have discovered 1000 extinct species of insect because they were preserved in Amber.
