Amber Specimen: What Is It?

[NZ_Fossil_Collecta]

hi, i have posted something similar on nature+ forum, but no definite identification. may be a wasp of some kind, or a midge, although i doubt it is a midge. could someone please tell me what the bug is, it is 30 MYO and i am not sure if it is baltic or dominican. these photographs are at different zoom levels. if you can, please inform me of the value. i purchased in japan for 2100 yen, which is 21.94 USD or 12.99 british pound sterling. however it may have more value, or less. i don't know.

[RichW9090]

At that price I would suspect a fake.

[NZ_Fossil_Collecta]

At that price I would suspect a fake.

what about the decomposition buuble on the abdomen? (p.s i bought from a natural history museum, if that helps with identifying whether it is fake or not)

[painshill]

If the quoted age is correct then it falls within a date range that could conceivably be either Baltic or Dominican. I don’t know what the insect specimen is, and we don’t value fossils on the forum, but if it’s Baltic material then the low price is no particular barrier to authenticity. You don’t give a size for the amber or the inclusion but authentic small pieces around 1-2cm in size with the more common insects (fungus gnats, gall midges, long-legged flies, moth flies etc) can be purchased here in the UK for about £7 Sterling. Dominican material with insects is more expensive (unless from the Cotui copal deposits which are no older than about 250 years).

It’s not possible to distinguish amber from copal (or fake) just using photographs but there is a wealth of information already on the forum about the physical tests that help distinguish them. I wouldn’t expect a specimen like that to be worthwhile faking as such, although there’s plenty of copal with insect and spider inclusions being passed off as amber. One would hope that a natural history museum would not be knowingly guilty of such practices.

[NZ_Fossil_Collecta]

it seems that it is dominican, however it is not fake, i can see extremely obvious decomposition