Soft tissue preservation in amber II – a multi-methodical approach towards the understanding of amber taphonomy

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Amber is well-known for its exceptional preservation of embedded organisms and represents an important insight into the fossil record of terrestrial ecosystems. The unique fossilization of amber yields the preservation of tissues, and structures which usually have only minimal chances to become fossilized, including nervous and sensory tissues. For inclusions in amber with preserved tissues, the ultrastructural details of those tissues can be used as a valuable tool for understanding the process of fossilization in amber. In the first funding period, we could get insight into the biomolecular preservation of bone tissue from Class I amber, but we could also show for the first time, that Class II amber preserves ultrastructures as well. Class II amber is found in vast amounts only in two deposits from China (Miocene) and India (Eocene). Our research could also evidence, that original amino acids are preserved in fossils of these two occurrences. Within the second funding period, we want to deepen some aspects of amber taphonomy, comprising the consistency of structural and biomolecular preservation, but also want to examine microbiological factors. A large-scale synchrotron examination of amber fossils will help to identify preservation patterns and enables a comparison of the consistency of internal tissue preservation between amber deposits of different ages and botanical origin. Within the biomolecular part of this project, the degradation of original proteins is analyzed with the help of various mass spectrometric methods. The new microbiological component comprises decay experiments on house flies in artificial resin and tests on the survivability of bacteria that have been reported to be extracted from amber. Altogether, our studies will provide new information on amber taphonomy within a multidisciplinary framework.