How old are insects found in amber?

Most amber-trapped insects on the market are 40-100 million years old. Baltic amber inclusions are typically 44 million years old (Eocene era). Burmese amber from Myanmar is around 99 million years old, making it the oldest commonly available source, genuinely from the Cretaceous when dinosaurs walked.

Can you identify the species of an insect in amber?

Often yes. Paleoentomologists routinely identify amber-trapped insects to genus, and sometimes to species. The preservation is good enough to see wing venation, leg segmentation, and antennae detail, better than most fossils.

Is amber-trapped DNA usable?

Short fragments have been recovered from amber inclusions, but the DNA breaks down over millions of years. Reconstructing a complete genome from amber-trapped DNA, the Jurassic Park premise, isn't possible with current technology, and likely never will be.

What's the difference between a fossil and an amber inclusion?

A typical fossil is mineralised rock that preserves the outline of an organism. An amber inclusion preserves the actual 3D body inside transparent resin. Amber inclusions are more like a tiny ancient mummy than a fossil, soft tissue, hair, even gut contents can be visible.

Why are amber inclusions so rare?

Less than 1% of natural amber contains visible insect inclusions. The insect had to be small enough to be trapped, the resin had to seal it before predators or weather could disturb it, and the resin had to survive tens of millions of years intact. The combination of conditions is genuinely uncommon.

A complete history of insects trapped in amber