Insect In Amber:

[Rodney]

A few years ago over a few weeks I gently chipped away at a section of what was said to be Baltic amber and removed some sort of insect stage. This specimen was really small, smaller than a dog flea. A little damage was done in the removal process even though extreme care was taken. I was never able to determine what it is and most likely want be able. You may be able to see the visible hairs. Picture taken with the aid of a compound Bausch and Lomb microscope.

Rodney

[MarcoSr]

Rodney

Nice looking specimen. I'm curious why you removed it from the amber.

Marco Sr.

[Rodney]

The only reason I removed the specimen was because I wanted a closer look and it was said to be extremely difficult to remove, it was. As you can tell this inclusion has taken on the composition of amber, so a real amber fossil. I could not obtain a good picture while it was inside the amber so I removed it. In many ways I think I should have left it the way it was but then again you may want to hold the fossil. A sealed cavity or void had formed inside the amber so I new I had a chance to remove it.

Rodney

[Rodney]

I did have a few people ask about this inclusion off list over the last couple of years and one or two lately. A couple of universities did look but nothing was final other than some type of insect stage. I have never seen an example like it and it seems no one else has either. I think this is a good example of a very old amber inclusion that was removed by me over a very lengthy process and your left with what you have.

Rodney