Feather in Chiapas Amber

There are a lot of things that are rare in amber.  Small animals can easily be attracted to the resin because of the smell.  Many larger insects can escape (because size often equates with strength).  Small reptiles or mammals can almost always pull themselves out of the sticky resin.  Every once in a while larger animals become temporarily stuck but can always pull themselves free.  Just think about what it is like when you put your finger in a glob of tree sap.  Birds seldom become stuck and almost as rare are feathers.  The bird would have to 'lean' into a blob of resin to get any of the hairs stuck.  Feathers are very rare, if not rarer than small lizards.
are 'rare'.

The amber that these feathers are in is large, about 3 inches x 3 inches x 1 inch.   The weight is about 96 grams (about 1/5th of a pound).

The entire feather mass is small, a little over an inch long.

I cannot ID the bird that these feathers come from - I do not know anyone who can do that.  But they are feathers! In fact they have a fascinating pattern to them.  Bands of black and white.  Now I understand that the dark might not have been black in real life.  Colors will change in 20 million years.  They could have been bright blue or brown or red.

The piece not only has a bunch of rare feathers, but there is a zoo inside this chunk of amber.   Not to far from the feathers is a mite (I always have problems ID'ing mites vs. ticks), at least I think it might be a mite.  This is taken from the ventral side of the mite.

There is a very large click beetle, order Coleoptera, Family, Elateridae about 1 inch in size - one of the largest I have seen.  You will have to look at the scanned image to see this one well.  Is much easier to photograph small things under a microscope than something large like this click beetle.

There are man small leaves scattered around.  One is curled upon itself.  A number of female worker ants are around, even a few parts of ants that once did battle.  Also gnats (a very nice fungus gnat), Diptera, Mycetophilidae.

With this piece, the more you look, the more you will see.  But do not forget the special thing about this piece is the tuft of feathers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some other images taken:

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OK, now take a breath and look at the price of this impossible find. You will never find anything like this in your lifetime. My email is lundberg@ambericawest.com - feel free to inquire

Scanned Image

While this will be on extended loan in mid-July, we are willing to sell it until that time.