International audienceInsect faunas are extremely rare near the latest Cretaceous with a 24-million-year gap spanning from the early Campanian to the early Eocene. Here, we report a unique amber biota from the Upper Cretaceous (uppermost Campanian ~72.1 Ma) of Tilin, central Myan-mar. The chemical composition of Tilin amber suggests a tree source among conifers, indicating that gymnosperms were still abundant in the latest Campanian equatorial forests. Eight orders and 12 families of insects have been found in Tilin amber so far, making it the latest known diverse insect assemblage in the Mesozoic. The presence of ants of the extant sub-families Dolichoderinae and Ponerinae supports that tropical forests were the cradle for the diversification of crown-group ants, and suggests that the turnover from stem groups to crown groups had already begun at ~72.1 Ma. Tilin amber biota fills a critical insect faunal gap and provides a rare insight into the latest Campanian forest ecosystem

Chang, Su Chin

Dutta, Suryendu

Fang, Yan

Kelly, Richard S.

Li, Sha

Mu, Lin

Perrichot, Vincent

Rudra, Arka

Wang, Bo

Wang, He

Wang, Jun

Wong, Jean

Zhang, Haichun

Zhang, Qi

Zhang, Qingqing

Zheng, Daran

Nature Communications

Insect faunas are extremely rare near the latest Cretaceous with a 24-million-year gap spanning from the early Campanian to the early Eocene. Here, we report a unique amber biota from the Upper Cretaceous (uppermost Campanian ~72.1 Ma) of Tilin, central Myanmar. The chemical composition of Tilin amber suggests a tree source among conifers, indicating that gymnosperms were still abundant in the latest Campanian equatorial forests. Eight orders and 12 families of insects have been found in Tilin amber so far, making it the latest known diverse insect assemblage in the Mesozoic. The presence of ants of the extant subfamilies Dolichoderinae and Ponerinae supports that tropical forests were the cradle for the diversification of crown-group ants, and suggests that the turnover from stem groups to crown groups had already begun at ~72.1 Ma. Tilin amber biota fills a critical insect faunal gap and provides a rare insight into the latest Campanian forest ecosystem.</p

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                          Zheng, D., Chang, S. C., Perrichot, V., Dutta, S., Rudra, A., Mu, L., ... Wang,B. (2018). A Late Cretaceous amber biota from central Myanmar. NatureCommunications, 9(1), [3170]. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05650-2Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordLicense (if available):CC BYLink to published version (if available):10.1038/s41467-018-05650-2Link to publication record in Explore Bristol ResearchPDF-documentThis is the final published version of the article (version of record). It first appeared online via Springer Nature athttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05650-2 . Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher.University of Bristol - Explore Bristol ResearchGeneral rightsThis document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the publishedversion using the reference above. Full terms of use are available:http://www.bristol.ac.uk/pure/about/ebr-terms1  Supplementary Information  A Late Cretaceous amber biota from central Myanmar Zheng et al.                    2  Supplementary Note 1     Both Tilin and Kachin ambers were closely located in West Burma block, which was near the equator during Late Cretaceous (Supplementary Figure 1). Regionally, Tilin amber mining is in Tilin (21° 41' N, 94° 5' E), Gangaw district, Magway region of central Myanmar (Supplementary Figure 2a), while Kachin amber mines are distributed in the Hukawng Valley of northern Myanmar (Supplementary Figure 2b). In Tilin, more than 30 pits have been made along the hill baron, which cover an area about 10 km2 (Supplementary Figure 3; also see Tay et al.1). A typical pit is generally 1 m wide and 10–20 m deep to reach amber-bearing layers (Supplementary Figure 3b). The amber samples were mined from the Cretaceous Kabaw Formation, and are preserved in coal seams beneath a grey tuff and above a yellow sandstone intercalated by conglomerates near mine surface (Supplementary Figure 4).     The present paper reports on the study of 5 kg of raw amber pieces that were collected from a single coal seam. The samples were ground and polished manually using a series of wet silicon carbide papers to produce smooth clean surfaces for investigation of fossil inclusions. One sediment sample (M-1) weighing about 5 kg was collected from the tuff just overlying or somewhat interbedded with the amber-bearing coal seam, and processed for LA-(MC)-ICP-MS U-Pb dating. Three ammonites (Sphenodiscus sp.) preserved in concretions within the sandstone were also collected. Sphenodiscus sp. has the whorl section stouter than that of S. lotatus, and the external suture with the adventive lobes much smaller than the lateral so that the adventive saddles are rather small and has lesser incisions than S. lotatus. Sphenodiscus sp. resembles S. ubaghsi, but differs in having obviously ventrolateral tubercles. Several amber fragments were processed for Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry analysis. 3  Significant insect faunas known from the Canadian amber of the Campanian Foremost Formation, occurred approximately 13 million years before the KPg boundary2. The Fur Formation, a Danish unit that contains insect compression fossils from approximately 11 million years after the KPg event3. There are few amber sites recorded from the upper Campannian to Maastrichtian. Until now, it has been reported only six times, from the Danek Bonebed in Canada, the Modena region in Italy, the Corbières region in France, the Tremp Formation in Spain, and the Fruitland Formation and Hell Creek Formation in the United States4–9. Most of these ambers are devoid of biological inclusions, and few insects have been recognized only in Hell Creek amber (22 specimens, mostly dipterans8). Our discovery of fossils in the latest Campanian amber of central Myanmar reveals a diverse insect biota and provides a rare insight into a latest Campanian forest ecosystem.                     4  Supplementary Figures  Supplementary Figure 1 | Palaeogeographic positions of Tilin and Kachin amber sites. a, palaeogeographic map during late Campanian; b,  palaeogeographic map during late Albian (based on Scotese10). Yellow triangle, Tilin amber site; red triangle, Kachin amber site. 5  Supplementary Figure 2 | Geological maps showing amber positions in Myanmar. a, Geological location of  Tilin amber in Gangaw, Magway of central Myanmar; b, Geological location of  Kachin amber in Hukawng Valley, northern Myanmar. 6  Supplementary Figure 3 | Photograph showing outcrops of Tilin amber site. a, distribution of amber mines along the hill; b, top view of an amber mine; c, tuff excavated from amber mines; d, coal seam excavated from amber mines.  7  Supplementary Figure 4 | Photographs showing lithology of Tilin amber site. a, soil near mine surface; b, tuff bearing some charcoal; c, boundary between tuff and coal seam (marked by white arrow); d, raw amber as found in coal seam. Scale bars, 10 mm. 8  Supplementary Figure 5 | U-Pb geochronology of M-1 from Tilin amber. a, Tera-Wasserburg plot for zircons from M-1; b, rank order plot for zircons from M-1 showing weighted mean calculated 206Pb/238U dates; c, cathodoluminescent (CL) images of ten young zircons analyzed in b (red circle diameter= 40 µm). MSWD—mean square of weighted deviates. 9  Supplementary Figure 6 | Photographs of Sphenodiscus sp. a–c, specimen A, NIGP168515; a, lateral view; b, front view; c, ventral view; d–f, specimen B, NIGP168516; d, lateral view; e, front view; f, ventral view. 10  Supplementary Figure 7 | Selected ion chromatogram of pyrolysis products of Tilin amber.  Selected number peaks: 28 (16, 17, 18-trisnorabieta-8, 11, 13-triene), 31 (bisnordehydroabeitane), 33 (bisnorsimonellite), and 40 (simonellite).  11  Supplementary Table 1 | U-Pb analytical results for tuff sample from Hti Lin amber mine. Samples   Isotopic ratios rho U-Pb Ages(Ma) concor. Th/U 207Pb/206Pb ±1σ 207Pb/235U ±1σ 206Pb/238U ±1σ 207Pb/206Pb  ±1σ 207Pb/235U ±1σ 206Pb/238U ±1σ M-1, tuff overlying amber-bearing layers                     91500 0.49 0.075 0.0003 1.850 0.0109 0.179 0.0008 0.797 1070 5 1063 4 1060 5 99% 91500 0.50 0.075 0.0003 1.851 0.0101 0.180 0.0008 0.768 1061 5 1064 4 1065 4 99% 91500 0.50 0.075 0.0003 1.850 0.0112 0.180 0.0008 0.753 1056 6 1063 4 1067 4 99% 91500 0.49 0.075 0.0004 1.850 0.0112 0.178 0.0007 0.672 1074 6 1064 4 1058 4 99% 91500 0.50 0.075 0.0003 1.850 0.0108 0.179 0.0009 0.822 1070 5 1063 4 1060 5 99% 91500 0.49 0.075 0.0003 1.851 0.0116 0.180 0.0009 0.765 1060 6 1064 4 1065 5 99% 91500 0.45 0.075 0.0003 1.852 0.0110 0.179 0.0009 0.805 1065 5 1064 4 1064 5 99% 91500 0.49 0.075 0.0003 1.850 0.0117 0.179 0.0009 0.808 1063 6 1063 4 1063 5 99% 91500 0.49 0.075 0.0003 1.849 0.0101 0.179 0.0009 0.876 1068 5 1063 4 1061 5 99% GJ-1 0.05 0.060 0.0003 0.815 0.0067 0.098 0.0007 0.874 606 8 605 4 604 4 99% GJ-1 0.05 0.060 0.0004 0.813 0.0097 0.098 0.0010 0.857 611 12 604 5 602 6 99% GJ-1 0.05 0.060 0.0002 0.817 0.0050 0.099 0.0005 0.808 596 6 606 3 609 3 99% GJ-1 0.05 0.060 0.0002 0.816 0.0051 0.098 0.0006 0.932 609 6 606 3 605 3 99% GJ-1 0.05 0.060 0.0002 0.815 0.0050 0.098 0.0005 0.818 608 6 605 3 605 3 99% GJ-1 0.05 0.060 0.0002 0.816 0.0052 0.098 0.0005 0.853 618 6 606 3 602 3 99% GJ-1 0.05 0.060 0.0002 0.817 0.0050 0.099 0.0006 0.944 604 6 607 3 607 3 99% GJ-1 0.05 0.060 0.0002 0.818 0.0051 0.099 0.0005 0.887 608 6 607 3 607 3 99% M-1-1 0.75 0.048 0.0005 0.078 0.0008 0.012 0.0001 0.701 89 13 75.9 0.8 75.6 0.6 99% M-1-2 0.72 0.048 0.0003 0.075 0.0007 0.011 0.0001 0.764 101 10 73.2 0.6 72.3 0.5 98% M-1-3 0.87 0.083 0.0367 0.127 0.0559 0.011 0.0006 0.490 1260 1005 121 50 71 4 -40% M-1-4 0.75 0.049 0.0004 0.076 0.0007 0.011 0.0001 0.663 144 11 74.4 0.7 72.2 0.4 97% M-1-5 1.14 0.048 0.0003 0.074 0.0007 0.011 0.0001 0.815 98 10 72.9 0.7 72.2 0.5 99% M-1-6 0.72 0.047 0.0003 0.077 0.0007 0.012 0.0001 0.730 73 11 74.9 0.7 74.9 0.5 99% M-1-7 0.78 0.048 0.0003 0.074 0.0006 0.011 0.0001 0.789 82 8 72.5 0.5 72.3 0.4 99% M-1-8 0.76 0.049 0.0012 0.075 0.0018 0.011 0.0001 0.544 128 60 73 2 71.4 0.5 92% M-1-9 0.78 0.048 0.0003 0.077 0.0007 0.012 0.0001 0.772 95 11 75.1 0.7 74.4 0.6 99% 12  M-1-10 0.70 0.049 0.0005 0.078 0.0009 0.012 0.0001 0.612 132 15 75.8 0.9 74 0.5 97% M-1-11 0.68 0.049 0.0006 0.077 0.0012 0.011 0.0001 0.673 135 19 75 1 73.5 0.8 97% M-1-12 0.80 0.048 0.0003 0.074 0.0006 0.011 0.0001 0.588 84 10 72.5 0.6 72.1 0.3 99% M-1-13 0.62 0.048 0.0004 0.074 0.0007 0.011 0.0001 0.777 113 10 72.8 0.6 71.6 0.5 98% M-1-14 0.37 0.058 0.0002 0.671 0.0062 0.084 0.0008 1.007 520 9 521 4 522 5 99% M-1-15 0.81 0.050 0.0003 0.077 0.0010 0.011 0.0001 0.720 185 14 75.7 0.9 72.1 0.6 95% M-1-16 0.92 0.051 0.0013 0.076 0.0019 0.011 0.0001 0.543 229 62 75 2 69.8 0.5 81% M-1-17 0.66 0.048 0.0003 0.074 0.0007 0.011 0.0001 0.604 106 11 72.8 0.6 71.7 0.4 98% M-1-18 0.68 0.050 0.0004 0.079 0.0009 0.012 0.0001 0.688 177 12 77.3 0.8 74.1 0.5 95% M-1-19 0.75 0.047 0.0002 0.074 0.0006 0.011 0.0001 0.912 73 8 72.2 0.5 72.2 0.5 99% M-1-20 0.67 0.048 0.0004 0.075 0.0007 0.011 0.0001 0.685 75 11 73 0.7 73 0.5 99% M-1-21 0.67 0.049 0.0004 0.077 0.0009 0.011 0.0001 0.673 127 14 75.1 0.9 73.5 0.6 97% M-1-22 0.81 0.053 0.0072 0.081 0.0108 0.011 0.0002 0.202 348 303 79 10 71 1 44% M-1-23 0.59 0.048 0.0003 0.074 0.0007 0.011 0.0001 0.812 96 10 73 0.7 72.3 0.5 99% M-1-24 0.80 0.048 0.0002 0.075 0.0007 0.011 0.0001 0.871 96 10 73 0.7 72.2 0.6 99% M-1-25 0.64 0.048 0.0003 0.075 0.0008 0.011 0.0001 0.816 99 11 73.1 0.7 72.3 0.6 98%          13  Supplementary Table 2 | Major compounds identified from the Py-GC-MS analysis of Tilin amber. 1 Benzene 21 C4 Naphthalene 2 Toulene 22 C4 Naphthalene 3 C2 benzene 23 Rearranged C19 tricyclic terpane 4 C2 benzene 24 Rearranged C19 tricyclic terpane 5 C3 benzene 25 C19 tricyclic terpane 6 C3 benzene 26 Phenanthrene 7 Dihydronaphthalene 27 C19 tricyclic terpane 8 Naphthalene 28 16,17,19 -Trisnorabieta-8,11,13-triene 9 Benzene, (3-methyl-2-butenyl 29 Regular C19 tricyclic terpane 10 Naphthalene, 1,2-dihydro-3-methyl- 30 Methyl Phenanthrene 11 C1 Naphthalene 31 Bisnordehydroabeitane 12 C1 Naphthalene 32 Methyl Phenanthrene 13 Naphthalene, 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1,5-dimethyl- 33 Bisnorsimonellite  14 C2 Naphthalene 34 n-C20 15 C2 Naphthalene 35 Ethyl phenanthrene 16 C2 Naphthalene 36 1,2,3,4-Tetrahydroretene 17 Ionene 37 C16 Sesquiterpane 18 Methyl Ionene 38 n-C21 19 Naphthalene, 1,4-dihydro-2,5,8-trimethyl- 39 Trimethylphenanthrene 20 C3 Naphthalene 40 Simonellite     14  Supplementary References 1. Tay, T. S. et al. Burmese amber from Hti Lin. J. Gemmol. 34, 606–615 (2015). 2. McKellar, R. C. & Engel, M. S. Hymenoptera in Canadian Cretaceous amber (Insecta). Cretaceous Res. 35, 258–279 (2012). 3. Rust, J. & Andersen, N. M. Giant ants from the Paleogene of Denmark with a discussion of the fossil history and early evolution of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 125, 331–348 (1999). 4. Bellis, D. & Wolberg D. L. Analysis of gaseous inclusions in fossil resin from a Late Cretaceous stratigraphic sequence. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 97, 69–82 (1991). 5. Nel, A., De Ploëg, G., Millet, J., Menier, J.-J. & Waller, A. The French ambers: a general conspectus and the Lowermost Eocene amber deposit of Le Quesnoy in the Paris Basin. Geol. Acta 2, 3–8 (2004). 6. Delclòs, X., et al. Fossiliferous amber deposits from the Cretaceous (Albian) of Spain. C. R. Palevol 6, 135–149 (2007). 7. DePalma, R., Cichocki, F., Dierick, M. & Feeney, R. Preliminary notes on the first recorded amber insects from the Hell Creek Formation. J. Paleontol. Sci. C.10.0001, 7 (2010). 8. Davies, L. J., McKellar, R. C., Muehlenbachs, K. & Wolfe, A. P. Isotopic characterization of organic matter from the Danek Bonebed (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) with special reference to amber. Can. J. Earth Sci. 51, 1017–1022 (2014). 9. Neri, M., et al. Nuovi dati stratigrafici sull'ambra di Castelvecchio di Prignano (MO), Paleodays 2016, XVI Giornate di Paleontologia, Faenza, Italy, abstract book p. 63 (2016). 10. Scotese, C. R. Atlas of Late Cretaceous paleogeographic maps, PALEOMAP atlas for ArcGIS, 15  volume 2, The Cretaceous, Maps 16–22, Mollweide Projection (PALEOMAP Project, Evanston, IL, 2014). 

A Late Cretaceous amber biota from central Myanmar

Insect faunas are extremely rare near the latest Cretaceous with a 24-million-year gap spanning from the early Campanian to the early Eocene. Here, we report a unique amber biota from the Upper Cretaceous (uppermost Campanian similar to 72.1 Ma) of Tilin, central Myanmar. The chemical composition of Tilin amber suggests a tree source among conifers, indicating that gymnosperms were still abundant in the latest Campanian equatorial forests. Eight orders and 12 families of insects have been found in Tilin amber so far, making it the latest known diverse insect assemblage in the Mesozoic. The presence of ants of the extant subfamilies Dolichoderinae and Ponerinae supports that tropical forests were the cradle for the diversification of crown-group ants, and suggests that the turnover from stem groups to crown groups had already begun at similar to 72.1 Ma. Tilin amber biota fills a critical insect faunal gap and provides a rare insight into the latest Campanian forest ecosystem

A Late Cretaceous amber biota from central Myanmar

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