Amber has been through something of a renaissance, however, since the fall of communism and the opening up of the Eastern Bloc many new visitors have been attracted to Russia helping growth in sales of this only true gem of the region. The release of the extremely popular film “Jurassic Park” in 1993, helped amber sales sore. Its value today is at incredible high, yet, it is unlikely ever to achieve its ancient value, which during biblical times was weight for weight two hundred times that of gold!
The premise of the film was that within a piece of amber they found a trapped mosquito, within the mosquito they found preserved the blood of dinosaurs that the mosquito has been feeding on. Within the blood they found the preserved DNA strings of these long extinct dinosaurs. The film was pure fiction as unfortunately, in reality, DNA degrades over time, so this method is not currently feasible. However, amber does contains perfectly well preserved pieces of flora and fauna as well as extinct insect pieces from the Ancient forests twenty to sixty million years old. These inclusions in Amber such as plant material, feathers, and insects can provide valuable insights into ancient ecosystems and climates.
No dinosaur DNA.......yet!