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

琥珀以其对嵌入生物的特殊保存而闻名，代表了对陆地生态系统化石记录的重要洞察。琥珀独特的石化产生了保存下来的组织和结构，这些组织和结构通常只有很小的机会变成化石，包括神经和感觉组织。对于带有保存组织的琥珀中的包裹体，这些组织的超微结构细节可以作为了解琥珀中石化过程的有价值的工具。在第一个资助期，我们可以深入了解I类琥珀对骨组织的生物分子保存，但我们也可以首次表明，II类琥珀也保留了超微结构。仅在中国(中新世)和印度(始新世)的两个矿床中发现了大量的II类琥珀。我们的研究也可以证明，原始氨基酸保存在这两个事件的化石中。在第二个资助期内，我们希望深化琥珀挖掘的某些方面，包括结构和生物分子保存的一致性，但也希望检查微生物因素。对琥珀化石的大规模同步加速器检查将有助于识别保存模式，并能够比较不同年龄和植物来源的琥珀沉积物内部组织保存的一致性。在这个项目的生物分子部分，利用各种质谱学方法分析了原始蛋白质的降解。这种新的微生物成分包括在人造树脂中对家蝇进行腐烂实验，以及对据报道从琥珀中提取的细菌的生存能力进行测试。总之，我们的研究将在多学科框架内提供有关琥珀割胶的新信息。

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.