{"id":21722,"date":"2026-09-04T14:24:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T12:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ultimabozza.it\/worlds-oldest-amber-found-in-china\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T15:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T13:13:13","slug":"worlds-oldest-amber-found-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ultimabozza.it\/en\/worlds-oldest-amber-found-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"World’s Oldest Amber Found in China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At a coal deposit in northwestern China, a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences recovered 241 fragments of fossil resin dating back 385 million years<\/strong>. This finding surpasses the previous record\u2014held until now by a 325-million-year-old piece of amber discovered in the Carboniferous period\u2014by 65 million years. The study<\/a> is published in *Science Advances<\/em>*.<\/p>\n\n

Why Amber Is More Than Just a Fossil<\/h3>\n\n

Beyond its aesthetic value, amber is a natural archive: it traps pollen, plant fragments, insects, and in some cases small vertebrates, preserving them intact for hundreds of millions of years. Each new discovery reveals the age of the resin itself and offers a direct glimpse into the ecosystem in which it formed. Pushing the origin of amber back 65 million years therefore also pushes back the possibility of one day observing a piece of the Devonian world that has remained sealed until now.<\/p>\n\n

A discovery that cast doubt on itself<\/h3>\n\n

Initial dating results had left the researchers themselves uncertain: the material seemed too old to be fossilized resin, and for a moment they considered it might be a different substance similar to amber. Only a series of chemical analyses confirmed the identity of the specimens. Until this discovery, the prevailing hypothesis linked the appearance of the resin to the spread of the first plant-eating insects: the plant was defending itself against its predators. The new fragments, however, date back to the Devonian period, a time when these insects did not yet exist.<\/p>\n\n

What were they protecting themselves from back then?<\/h3>\n\n

The study\u2019s authors have not yet identified the tree species from which the resin originates, but they suggest another possible source of this defensive function: parasitic fungi capable of damaging the bark, and frequent fires that caused deep wounds in the trees. The resin likely began sealing these wounds long before the insects became a problem, while still performing the same function we recognize today: closing the wound and keeping pathogens at bay. In other words, the resin\u2019s defensive function did not arise with the insect we now associate with it, but predates it: the plant was already equipped when the new threat emerged.<\/p>\n\n

How far back can we go?<\/h3>\n\n

Chang Luo, the study\u2019s lead author, considers 385 million years to be a starting point, not a limit. The team hypothesizes that the earliest forms of resin production may date back as far as 540 million years, a time when terrestrial plants were just beginning to diversify. Luo has already identified the geological areas on which to focus future research, in the hope of finding even older traces in other coal deposits in the same region.<\/p>\n\n

In the meantime, the verified data stand: 241 fragments that push back the timeline of one of the world\u2019s most widespread plant defense mechanisms by 65 million years, and that rewrite the sequence in which plants and insects influenced one another throughout Earth\u2019s evolutionary history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is 385 million years old and breaks the previous record by 65 million years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":21723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAowscnaCw:productID":"","_app_feed_target":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1615],"tags":[2661,2662],"class_list":["post-21722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature","tag-ambra","tag-cina"],"yoast_head":"\nWorld's Oldest Amber Found in China • Ultima Bozza<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is 385 million years old and breaks the previous record by 65 million years\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ultimabozza.it\/en\/worlds-oldest-amber-found-in-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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