The Baltic Amber Enigma

Baltic amber, i.e. fossil resin deposited ca. 50 to 25 million years ago is legendary. But its real value is scientific, because of millions of exceptionally well-preserved minute fossil inclusions, mainly insects and plants. Amber fossils would be an amazing window to the past biota if we knew the exact time and geographic region of this ancient resin formation. Unfortunately, contrary to rocks, the geological history of movable amber pieces is intractable. As a result, this exceptional collection is a handicapped and misleading resource. I aim to deduce the place and time of the Baltic amber origin by inferring these parameters for the organisms entrapped in amber itself instead of investigating the resin, or geological matrix in which it was deposited. The latter was the way it has been tackled so far, repeatedly and unsuccessfully. I will trace these crucial whereabouts of the amber fossils through a phylogenetic analysis empowered by genomic data of their numerous recent descendants. When the Baltic Amber Enigma is solved, myriads of its organismal inclusions will assemble into a high-resolution view of the discrete area of the Eocene world at a fixed time period, something that scientists can only dream about.