Taphonomy and palaeoecology of insects in amber: A comparison of the Middle Miocene Mexican amber fauna with to the extant insect fauna of a Mexican resin-producing forest in Chiapas, Mexico.

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The present project is a comparative analysis of the Mexican amber fauna with the recent insect fauna at and around Hymenaea curbaril This floral community is situated in a resin-producing forest on the Pacific coast of southern Mexico, which is very similar to the Mexican amber forest. This exceptional situation enables detailed investigations of the taphonomical biases and filters of the fossilization of insect communities in amber. Other important topics are the stability of faunal communities in the light of changing climatic conditions, especially the aquatic associations and the quantitative as well as qualitative analysis of the persistence or extinction of insect genera and species in Mexico and Central America, which are known from Mexican amber. Finally the project is a contribution to the knowledge of the insect biodiversity of a highly diverse Neotropical Region.