Forever in Amber.

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  • Author(s): Holden, Constance
  • Source:
    Science. 4/2/2004, Vol. 304 Issue 5667, p44-44. 1/6p. 1 Color Photograph.
  • Additional Information
    • Subject Terms:
      AMOEBIDA; FOSSILS; FRESHWATER biology; PALEONTOLOGY; SCHMIDT, Alexander; UNIVERSITIES & colleges
    • Abstract:
      Single-celled amoebae almost entirely made of water are exceedingly rare as fossils. They represent the earliest occurrence of four species of freshwater amoebae in the Phryganellidae and Centropyxidae families that live on today. The fingernail-sized amber chips, formed from tree resin that flowed into ponds, were found in 1980s. But only recently have their contents been identified, in the March issue of the journal "Palaeontology," by Alexander Schmidt and colleagues at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena.