Friday, January 18, 2019

Fossilized Insect Discovered Not in Amber, But in Opal

https://entomologytoday.org/2019/01/18/fossilized-insect-discovered-amber-opal/?fbclid=IwAR2iloFnnHIiwqEITfL17viKbgU4kXa8UVhhspDie2Kbp5-Zrm129tiD1Cg


Fossilized Insect Discovered Not in Amber, But in Opal

Brian Berger purchased a precious opal discovered on the island of Java in Indonesia. The specimen is an extremely rare example featuring “play of color” throughout the stone. But, most exciting in this particular opal—and likely of most interest to readers of this blog—is not the play of color but rather the inclusion. Embedded within the opal is an intact encased insect.

Upon close inspection, the insect appears to have an open mouth and to be very well preserved, with even fibrous structures extending from the appendages.

The specimen was examined recently by the Gemological Institute of America and received a letter of provenance for the rarity of such an inclusion. The letter includes the GIA report number from the examination of the stone. From a gemological standpoint, this is truly an exciting and extremely rare, notable find. And the same can likely be said from the entomological perspective. 

No comments:

Post a Comment