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New Trove of Fossils Suggests Global Distribution of Tropical Forest Ecosystems in the Eocene


October 25, 2010

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A vast new amber deposit in India has yielded 100 fossil spiders, bees, and flies, that date to the Early Eocene, or 52-50 million years ago. These arthropods are not unique--as would be expected on an island (which India was at that time)--but have close evolutionary relationships with fossils from the Americas, Europe and Asia. The amber is also the oldest evidence of a tropical broadleaf rainforest in Asia.Full Story

Source
American Museum of Natural History

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