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Hello everyone! I was just curious as to what you think of this specimen. I'm aware users here are (understandably) very sceptical of lizards in amber/copal, so I'd love to hear what you have toto say about it. Here are the details: Species is unknown From Colombia, thought to be from Pliocene/Pleistocene The lizard measures 30 millimetres. Total measurement with copal is 50 x 40 x 0.50 mm Full image: Base - partial tail and leg, with one foot visible on the right Torso - possible predation? Also note the little stump where the leg should be. Head - possible mineralised blood above head? Note large bug on the left Bugs located at the top, to the right of the head

First off I am new to this forum and I greatly appreciate any information and help this community has to offer. I'm normally more of a Paleo collector/diver but fate landed this in my lap and now i'm stumped. I have had it verified to be Copal by a gemologist. It is 32" long 24" wide and 10" at the thickest point. It weights 61 Kilograms. It appears to have formed from a single tree as its color is uniform through out the piece. I discovered it on a Beach in South Carolina a few days after Hurricane Irma blew through. I have tried museums for help and they just say "wow that is big" and want it donated for free, not much help there. Anyone else I have talked to tells me it's so rare that they cannot even guess at a value. Ebay is no help since all copal on there are small pieces sold for jewelry. The largest piece I have found for sale is 3 pounds... Not much to compare to. I would REALLY appreciate any help in determining even a ballpark value and searching for a museum interested in holding it as a loaned piece. I am also curious about taking it to the Tucson Gem show, for display or sale. Thank you.

I have been doing some recent work with Columbian Amber/Copal and thought I would throw this out for a general discussion. It is fun, if nothing else Most of my life I have believed that there is no difference between Copal and Amber. I know chemically there is no difference between the two. Amber/Copal from the same plant from different time periods, even millions of years apart are identical. Fossil resin's molecular make-up is mostly carbon and hydrogen atoms that form hexagonal rings. Molecular bonding between the rings increases over time (called polymerization, as in modern epoxy resins), and the tacky resin becomes hard. For all practical purposes, the hardened resin is a "plastic". Exactly when the resin becomes amber/copal, or a fossil, is not definable by any scientific criteria. I would like to see if others have the same thoughts. I am also attaching a picture of the best piece in my collection. "Best" meaning my favorite. This is one of my favorite articles. The following is by Dr. Robert E. Woodruff Emeritus Taxonomist, Florida State Collection of Arthropods Resins are produced by many trees and other plants; Frankincense of the Bible is one of these. Peach and Cherry trees produce resins that children often use as chewing gum. No botanist or paleontologist knows when resins were first produced, but we know it was probably more than 100 million years ago. They are produced to heal wounds, just as our blood coagulates to seal injuries. There is no doubt that these resins have been produced continuously since they first occured. Because they are affected little by the elements, resins are similar to their original form. Only a few volatile oils are eliminated by time and burial (e.g., in marine sediments that are 3000 ft. elevation now). We use Canadian Balsam as the most permanent sealant for cover slips on microscope slides. Unfortunately, no one can presently date these resins by any definitive tests. Because they have been continuously produced, there are no drastic changes from one geological period to another. We can infer age, if we know the age of a sedimentary deposit in which they are found (this would be a minimum, because older material could have been redeposited). There are those (including several scientists) that insist that the word amber must be reserved for certain age resins. With such a continuous resin production, and no clear dating, it could all be called amber. It is a semantic argument, & those who sell Baltic, Dominican, & Mexican "amber" do not want to use the term for any that might be more recent. Obviously a commercial bias is present. They prefer to use the term "copal". Strictly speaking, the Aztec word "copal" is used for all resins! They do not distinguish the Miocene deposits from southern Mexico from the recent resin collected for incense today. Therefore it should not be redefined to fit some new arbitrary definition based on age. It is considered lower class only because of these commercial interests. We have Cretaceous amber (at least 65 million years old) and much Oligocene & Miocene amber, as well as Pliocene (Africa), and many others. We have no dates or specific geological information on Colombian amber. Because of it's color and hardness, we believe it may be Pliocene or Pleistocene (as is some of the Dominican amber from Cotui). Studies underway may clarify the deposits, but evidence suggests that there may be varying geological formations & ages. Mankind (depending on the anthropologist's definition thereof) has been on earth only 3-5 million years. Certainly the Olduvai specimens are fossils (both men & animals) and extremely valuable for study of human evolution. If we assume the Colombian amber is this recent, it still has extremely important value for those studying the fossils. Studies of biodiversity, biogeography, ecology, and evolution, all benefit from the scientific description of these amber fossils. Age is relative, the old man said, but old is not necessarily better. To call the Colombian material anything other than amber is a misnomer! Logically, we should just call everything "resin", with qualifying adjectives of origin or geological formation. I doubt that this would be acceptable to most "amber" dealers!