Burmese amber

Holotype specimen of Burmomyrma rossi, showing typical dark-red colouration and opacity

Burmese amber, or Burmite or Kachin amber, is amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. It is important for its fossils from the earliest part of the Upper Cretaceous, in the Cenomanian age, 99 million years ago. The amber has been commercially exploited since the first century AD. Research on the deposit may fund internal conflict in Myanmar.

The amber has flora and fauna especially arthropods such as insects and arachnids. There are also also birds, lizards, snakes, frogs and fragments of dinosaur remains.

The fossils arachnids in the amber include:

• 44 families of spiders.
• 20 families of mites.
• 5 families of Opiliones (mites, harvestmen, daddy longlegs)
• 12 families of pseudoscorpions
• 7 families of scorpions
• 5 families of ticks
• 1 genus of short-tailed whipscorpion (Schizomida)
• 1 genus of Palpigradi
• 1 genus of Amblypygi
• 1 genus of camel spider
• 2 genera of whip scprpions
• 3 genera of hooded tickspiders

15 families of myriapods are in the amber

8 families of Entognatha are known

29 orders of insects are known, including:

• 50+ families of Hymenoptera
• 47 families of flies (Diptera)
• 89 families of beetles (Coleoptera)
• 21 families of Neuroptera (such as lacewings, antlions, etc)
• 65 families of Hemiptera (true bugs)
• 20 families of Dictyoptera

And 16 more smaller families.

Other groups of invertebrates include:

• Nematodes
• Nematomorpha
• Molluscs

There are some vertebrates:

CT scan of mummified bird wing in amber

• A well preserved theropod dinosaur tail, with preserved feathers.^[1]
• Fossils of enantiornithine birds including juveniles^[2][3] and partial wings and preserved feet,^[4][5][6][7] including a diagnostic taxon, Elektorornis.^[8]
• A complete skull of the bizarre avialan or lizard Oculudentavis is known.^[9]
• Electrorana is a well preserved frog known from the amber.^[10]
• Other notable specimens include an embryonic snake.^[11]
• Several species of lizard were described from the deposit including a gecko with preserved toe pads (Cretaceogekko).^[12][13]
• One of the specimens was initially described to be a chamelonid, actually turned out to be an albanerpetonid amphibian.^[14]

References

1. Xing, Lida + others (2016). "A feathered dinosaur tail with primitive plumage trapped in mid-Cretaceous amber". Current Biology. 26 (24): 3352–3360. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.008. PMID 27939315.
2. Xing, Lida + others (2017). "A mid-Cretaceous enantiornithine (Aves) hatchling preserved in Burmese amber with unusual plumage". Gondwana Research. 49: 264–277. Bibcode:2017GondR..49..264X. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2017.06.001.
3. Xing, Lida + others (2018). "A flattened enantiornithine in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber: morphology and preservation". Science Bulletin. 63 (4): 235–243. Bibcode:2018SciBu..63..235X. doi:10.1016/j.scib.2018.01.019. PMID 36659012. S2CID 103360480.
4. Xing, Lida + others (2019). "A fully feathered enantiornithine foot and wing fragment preserved in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 927. Bibcode:2019NatSR...9..927X. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-37427-4. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 6353931. PMID 30700773.
5. Xing, Lida + others (2019). "A mid-Cretaceous enantiornithine foot and tail feather preserved in Burmese amber". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 15513. Bibcode:2019NatSR...915513X. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-51929-9. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 6820775. PMID 31664115.
6. Xing, Lida; McKellar, Ryan C.; O'Connor, Jingmai K. (2020). "An unusually large bird wing in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber". Cretaceous Research. 110: 104412. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104412. S2CID 213510021.
7. Xing, Lida + others (2016). "Mummified precocial bird wings in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber". Nature Communications. 7 (1): 12089. Bibcode:2016NatCo...712089X. doi:10.1038/ncomms12089. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 4931330. PMID 27352215.
8. Xing, Lida (2019). "A new Enantiornithine bird with unusual pedal proportions found in amber". Current Biology. 29 (14): 2396–2401. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2019.05.077. PMID 31303484. S2CID 195887085.
9. Xing, Lida (2020). "Hummingbird-sized dinosaur from the Cretaceous period of Myanmar". Nature. 579 (7798): 245–249. Bibcode:2020Natur.579..245X. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2068-4. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 32161388. S2CID 212670113.
10. Xing, Lida; Stanley, Edward L.; Bai, Ming; Blackburn, David C. (2018). "The earliest direct evidence of frogs in wet tropical forests from Cretaceous Burmese amber". Scientific Reports. 8 (1): 8770. Bibcode:2018NatSR...8.8770X. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-26848-w. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 6002357. PMID 29904068.
11. Xing, Lida + others (2018). "A mid-Cretaceous embryonic-to-neonate snake in amber from Myanmar". Science Advances. 4 (7): eaat5042. Bibcode:2018SciA....4.5042X. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aat5042. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 6051735. PMID 30035227.
12. Arnold, E. Nicholas; Poinar, George (2008). "A 100 million year old gecko with sophisticated adhesive toe pads, preserved in amber from Myanmar". Zootaxa. 1847 (1): 62. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1847.1.5. ISSN 1175-5334.
13. Daza, Juan D.; Stanley, Edward L.; Wagner, Philipp; Bauer, Aaron M.; Grimaldi, David A. (2016). "Mid-Cretaceous amber fossils illuminate the past diversity of tropical lizards". Science Advances. 2 (3): e1501080. Bibcode:2016SciA....2E1080D. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1501080. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 4783129. PMID 26973870.
14. Matsumoto, Ryoko; Evans, Susan E. (2018). Smith, Thierry (ed.). "The first record of albanerpetontid amphibians (Amphibia: Albanerpetontidae) from East Asia". PLOS ONE. 13 (1): e0189767. Bibcode:2018PLoSO..1389767M. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0189767. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 5752013. PMID 29298317.