Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 2 October 2009:
Vol. 326. no. 5949, pp. 132 - 134
DOI: 10.1126/science.1177539
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Identification of Carboniferous (320 Million Years Old) Class Ic Amber

P. Sargent Bray* and Ken B. Anderson{dagger}

The presence of amber, the fossil form of the resins produced by many types of higher plants, has been reported from many localities in Mesozoic and Cenozoic rocks. We have found Class I (polylabdanoid) amber in Carboniferous sediments dating to ~320 million years ago. This result demonstrates that preconifer gymnosperms evolved the biosynthetic mechanisms to produce complex polyterpenoid resins earlier than previously believed and that the biosynthetic pathways leading to the types of polylabdanoid resins that are now typically found in conifers and those now typically found in angiosperms had already diverged by the Carboniferous.

Department of Geology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA.

* Present address: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kanderson{at}geo.siu.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Pushing Back Amber Production.
D. Grimaldi (2009)
Science 326, 51-52
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)