title: Cretaceous African life captured in amber.
abstract: Amber is of great paleontological importance because it preserves a diverse array of organisms and associated remains from different habitats in and close to the amber-producing forests. Therefore, the discovery of amber inclusions is important not only for tracing the evolutionary history of lineages with otherwise poor fossil records, but also for elucidating the composition, diversity, and ecology of terrestrial paleoecosystems. Here, we report a unique find of African amber with inclusions, from the Cretaceous of Ethiopia. Ancient arthropods belonging to the ants, wasps, thrips, zorapterans, and spiders are the earliest African records of these ecologically important groups and constitute significant discoveries providing insight into the temporal and geographical origins of these lineages. Together with diverse microscopic inclusions, these findings reveal the interactions of plants, fungi and arthropods during an epoch of major change in terrestrial ecosystems, which was caused by the initial radiation of the angiosperms. Because of its age, paleogeographic location and the exceptional preservation of the inclusions, this fossil resin broadens our understanding of the ecology of Cretaceous woodlands.
authors.affiliation: Courant Research Centre Geobiology, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Perrichot
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Svojtka
authors.forename: Ken B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: Kebede H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Belete
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bussert
authors.forename: Heinrich
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dörfelt
authors.forename: Saskia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jancke
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mohr
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mohrmann
authors.forename: Paul C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Nascimbene
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nel
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nel
authors.forename: Eugenio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ragazzi
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Roghi
authors.forename: Erin E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Saupe
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Selden
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vávra
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D018647:Amber; D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants; D044822:Biodiversity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D005002:Ethiopia; D005260:Female; D005580:Fossils; D005843:Geography; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D010163:Paleontology / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D018647:Amber