This video shows the bizarre moment air bubbles move through an incredible 20-million-year-old amber fossil. The fossil was discovered ...
This video shows the bizarre moment air bubbles move through an incredible 20-million-year-old amber fossil.
The fossil was discovered in the Dominican Republic and is thought to be 20-30 million years old, experts say.
It is extremely rare to see fossils with air bubbles inside them, since there first must be water in the fossil, a phenomenon known as enhydro. The air bubble is then trapped in the water pocket.
Amber is made of hardened tree resin and normally encases and immortalises forest-dwelling creatures.
This video shows the bizarre moment air bubbles move through an incredible 20-million-year-old amber fossil
The Twitter account 'Fossil Locator' posted the fascinating video of the air bubbles flowing through the fossil.
'Enhydro (water inclusion) with a moving air bubble in amber from the Dominican Republic, 20-30 million years old, with plenty of insect fossils,' they wrote alongside the video.
Amber is fossilized tree resin and its known for its striking orange colour.
It is often valued as a gemstone and is made into a variety of decorative objects. It has been used as jewellery since the Stone Age, from 13,000 years ago.
Amber normally encases and immortalises forest-dwelling creatures as it captures them, renders them unable to escape and then hardens.
Amber is found in various countries across the globe. Some of the largest deposits exploited for jewellery and science are in the Dominican Republic.
Large amounts of it can also be found in the Baltic region of Europe, and Myanmar.
In the Dominican Republic, amber forms from the sap of the Hymenaea tree.
Last year, a sea creature that lived 99 million years ago was found preserved in amber in an ultra-rare finding (pictured)
Last year, a sea creature that lived 99 million years ago was found preserved in amber in an ultra-rare finding.
The fossil, found in northern Myanmar, is the first ever known example of an ammonite to be trapped in amber.
It is thought the amber, which is also home to various land-dwelling organisms, formed on a shell-riddled beach close to resin-producing trees.
The 33 mm long, 9.5 mm wide, 29 mm high chunk of amber hosts a range of different organisms from the world during the Cenomanian age.
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