My Baltic amber wasp

[frogmarch]

is finally here! Its journey from Russia took four weeks, but it was in customs during most of that time.



The wasp belongs to the thread-waisted wasp family, Sphecidae, and is 40-50 million years old.

Here is a photo of one of the two unpolished sides:



Amber insect inclusion pieces are often small to make viewing the insects easier.

Now to examine the wasp inclusion in sunlight (finally, a sunny day!) with my loupe to learn more about it. I heart amber bugs.

[Angry Dragon]

1. Jurassic Park

[HopeHoops]

2. Yeah, don't clone it - it might get nasty.

[frogmarch]

3. Baltic amber is more recent

than the Jurassic Period, and even more recent than the Cretaceous Period, and because DNA deteriorates rapidly, most scientists think it's unlikely that DNA of any kind will ever be found in even Baltic amber, which is from the Eocene Epoch, the second epoch of the Paleogene Period.

[pokerfan]

4. Wasps are cool

[Moondog]

5. Very, very nice.

If you polish it up, or otherwise modify it, please post photos.

[frogmarch]

7. Thank you. I doubt I'll

do anything to it, but if I do, I'll post some pics.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

6. Cool.