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Ant in Burmite


Morten Øen

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I just got an ant, or Hymenoptera Formicidae today in Amber from Myanmar, or Burmite. I had to take pictures of this ant inclusion right away. There is only one deposit of Amber in Myanmar, and it is dated to 99 millio years ago, in the cretaceous, so the date is confirmed. And it glows blue under UV-light. So nice!

Although this image is not as good as my others, remember the age difference between Baltic Amber and Burmite. Inclusions in Burmite are almost always more damaged. But this one is like a crime scene. There are claw marks around the ant, and a piece of grass or something (well, it can't be grass, as grass is only 66 mill years old!) next to it. No other plant materials like this in the 1.3g lump of amber. I only payed $60 for it, but I'm going back to my Baltic stuff. Burmite inclusions are just too expensive. A friend of mine just bought a Burmite piece with a feather inside for $1000!

Here is the image of my Formicidae, if everything works out right.

58ed4b1ad4073_2017Amber057AprilBurmiteamberHymenopteraFormicidae.thumb.jpg.249a2ed8b864918f3619cfaec918847b.jpg

 

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Thank you for kind words! I am sort of making amber photography into "a thing". I have only about 100 inclusions, but plan to get more. If any of you are interested I post them here: http://mortenoen.blogspot.no  A lot of them have wrong names, but I'm getting much better at ID now, thanks to Andrew Ross' books. Here is another one in Baltic Amber. They are much younger (28-38 mill years old) and the amber has better optical properties as well. This is as sharp as it gets. And I love to include everything in the amber, just like a landscape photo.

Cheers!

58ef3ae7c4554_2017Amber053AprilDipteraNematoceraI.thumb.jpg.8b61ab176b625bd9580a8cf4ee4d8d28.jpg

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Tank you so much! I do my  best! I still have about 40 inclusions left. It will keep me busy till summer. At least. And last night I made myself a "War of the Worlds"-scenario with this daddy-long-legs or Tipuloidea male. No manipulations what so ever. Only white balance adjusted to taste. It's just a matter of turning the amber, and a story is there in the inclusions, cracks and flows of debris :)

 

58f08ac66ee84_2017Amber058AprilDipteraTipuloideaMaleI.thumb.jpg.04d368b84985908fb43da5af0790955f.jpg

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I don't know if I've ever seen such good photography of amber inclusions... Great job.

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