About 90 million years ago, the climate in Antarctica was favorable for trees that produced resin. A research team from the Alfred Wegener Institute and TU Bergakademie Freiberg has published a study in the journal Antarctic Science, detailing the discovery of the southernmost amber ever found.
Until recently, Antarctica was a missing link on the global map of amber discoveries. This gap has now been filled by researchers led by Dr. Johann P. Klages from the Alfred Wegener Institute and Dr. Henny Gerschel from TU Bergakademie Freiberg. Their recent publication details the amber found in sediment samples collected during a 2017 expedition aboard the research icebreaker Polarstern, using the seafloor drill rig MARUM-MeBo70 at a depth of 946 meters. They named their find “Pine Island amber,” based on its location in Pine Island Bay within the Amundsen Sea Embayment — specifically at coordinates 73.57° South and 107.09° West.
“The amber pieces we studied provide direct information about the environmental conditions in West Antarctica 90 million years ago,” explains lead author Johann P. Klages. “This remarkable discovery offers further insights into how the forest we reconstructed in our 2020 Nature study may have operated,” says AWI marine geologist Klages. “It’s remarkable to find that, at one time, all seven continents had climates that supported resin-producing trees. Our next aim is to explore more about this forest ecosystem — whether it faced fires or if we can uncover traces of life preserved in the amber. This finding provides yet another direct link to the past.”
Those hoping to find large chunks of amber might be disappointed: Large pieces were not collected. Instead, for analysis using reflected-light and fluorescence microscopy, the material had to be air-dried and then carefully cut into small fragments, roughly 1 mm in diameter, from which amber pieces were extracted. Nonetheless, intriguing features were discovered: “The Antarctic amber probably contains bits of original tree bark as micro-inclusions. Its solid, transparent, and translucent qualities suggest it was buried close to the surface, as amber would degrade under more intense heat and deeper burial,” explains Henny Gerschel, a former staff member at TU Bergakademie Freiberg who is now a consultant at the Saxon State Office for the Environment, Agriculture, and Geology. The research team also found signs of pathological resin flow — a natural defense mechanism in trees that seal off damaged bark from parasites or wildfires, forming a barrier against insects and infections. “This discovery adds another piece to our understanding and will enhance our knowledge of the temperate rainforest environment, rich in conifers, that was found near the South Pole during the mid-Cretaceous period.”
