Nuclear time capsules6/10/2023 "Amber can be separated into different classes based on which plants it came from, and the discovery of Class II amber from the Anglesea site could mean certain prehistoric plants capable of producing cadinene-based amber were native to Australia during the Eocene Epoch, which is something that has never been proven due to their absence from the fossil record. "This study, sponsored by the Australian Research Council Discovery Projects scheme (led by Stilwell), could represent the first unambiguous discovery of indigenous Class II amber in Australia," he said. ![]() "Nuclear magnetic resonance turned out to be extremely useful as it provided us with a unique fingerprint of the chemical structure of each piece of amber," Associate Professor Stilwell said. Monash University researchers conducted their own chemical analysis using reflective and infrared spectroscopy. Project collaborator Dr Luke O"Dell from IFM said this degradation could potentially have a major impact on the preserved palaeobiological information contained within the samples, and the sort of information we can recover about Earth's ancient past.īy measuring how each sample absorbed and re-emitted electromagnetic radiation, Dr O"Dell, was able to probe the physical and chemical properties of the amber and identify distinct botanical sources. "Our collaboration aimed to identify the original plant sources of amber at Anglesea and Strahan and to establish the way they degraded during their tens of millions of years underground," said co-researcher Associate Professor Jeffrey Stilwell, also from the Monash School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment. "This is an unparalleled method of pr eservation, and provides insights into past organisms, ecosystems and environments," said Mr Coward.Īmber, also called resinite or fossilised resin, is organic material created through the fossilisation of the resins of seed plants. Study lead author, Andrew Coward, an Honours student from the Monash School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, said the amber captured a period in time during the Eocene Epoch (56 to 33.9 million years ago). In a project that could be straight out of Jurassic Park, Monash University researchers and collaborators from the Deakin Institute of Frontier Materials (IFM) used nuclear magnetic resonance to investigate the make-up of 52 to 40-million-year-old amber samples recovered from sites in Anglesea, Victoria, and Strahan, Tasmania. ![]() Photo by Monash UniversityĪ scientific analysis of fossilised tree resin has caused a rethink of Australia's prehistoric ecosystem, and could pave the way to recovering more preserved palaeobiological artefacts from the time of dinosaurs or prehistoric mammals. ![]() Australia's amber resources are limited, but scientists hope new analysis techniques will render insights into the nature of the continent's prehistoric ecosystems.
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