Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects. Amber is used in jewelry and has been used as a healing agent in folk medicine.
An ant inside Baltic amber
Unpolished amber stones
Fishing for amber on the coast of Baltic Sea. Winter storms throw out amber nuggets. Close to Gdańsk, Poland.
Wood resin, the source of amber
A fossil is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the fossil record.
Permineralized bryozoan from the Devonian of Wisconsin
External mold of a bivalve from the Logan Formation, Lower Carboniferous, Ohio
Silicified (replaced with silica) fossils from the Road Canyon Formation (Middle Permian of Texas)
Recrystallized scleractinian coral (aragonite to calcite) from the Jurassic of southern Israel