Abstract
Abstract. Marine microorganisms trapped in amber are extremely rare in the fossil record, and the few existing inclusions recovered so far originate from very few pieces of Cretaceous amber from France. Marine macroscopic inclusions are also very rare and were recently described from Cretaceous Burmese amber and Early Miocene Mexican amber. Whereas a coastal setting for the amber source forests is generally proposed, different scenarios have been suggested to explain how these marine inclusions can become trapped in a resin of terrestrial origin. These scenarios include an introduction of marine organisms (i) through high tides, (ii) from storms and resulting in flooding of the littoral/estuarine forest floor, (iii) in resin dropped into the sea in mangrove-type settings, or (iv) by wind and sea spray. We investigated the possibility of a wind-driven introduction of marine microorganisms into tree resins using modern coastal conifer forests with the highly resinous Cook pine (Araucaria columnaris) in New Caledonia as a model for the Cretaceous amber forests from France. By exposing fresh resin surfaces on the seaward side of the trees and the collection of older in situ resins, we confirmed that marine microorganisms can become trapped on sea-exposed resin, along with remnants from terrestrial organisms, and salt crystals. We suggest that, for cases where only a few marine inclusions are discovered in an amber deposit, an origin from aeolian background deposition is feasible. However, a more energetic but possibly still aeolian event is likely needed to explain the high numbers of marine microorganisms embedded in pieces of Cretaceous amber from France.
Highlights
Amber, fossil tree resin, is renowned as an archive of terrestrial arthropods, plants and fungi
To most closely represent the likely palaeoenvironment of the French Cretaceous amber, we focused on coastal forests dominated by Araucaria columnaris Hook. (Cook pine) in New Caledonia (Fig. 2)
3.2 Fresh resin exposed to sea spray
Summary
Fossil tree resin, is renowned as an archive of terrestrial arthropods, plants and fungi. Even organisms that typically occur in freshwater habitats are recorded in amber (e.g. amphipods, Coleman, 2004; testate amoebae, Schmidt et al, 2010; diving beetles, Gómez and Damgaard, 2014). It has been shown that fresh resin flowing into limnetic waters may trap limnetic microorganisms such as algae and testate amoebae and even aquatic arthropods (Schmidt and Dilcher, 2007). Girard et al (2008, 2009b, c) and Masure et al (2013) reported rare marine microfossils (diatoms, radiolarians, dinoflagellates, sponge spicules, a foraminifer and a sea urchin larval (echinopluteus) spine) that were entirely surrounded by solid amber, not merely trapped in fissures as contaminants, from latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian (Cretaceous) amber deposits in Charentes, southwestern France (at Archingeay and La Buzinie) (Fig. 1a).
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