Scientists have identified prehistoric insects preserved in amber at a sandstone quarry in Ecuador, dating back about 112 million years. The study, published in Communications Earth and Environment, reported that beetles, flies, ants, and wasps were discovered in fossilized tree resin on the edge of the Amazon basin. According to experts, this is the first time such specimens have been confirmed in South America. Researcher Fabiany Herrera from the Field Museum in Chicago explained that the find coincided with the early spread of flowering plants, a period that marked significant ecological transformation. For decades, almost all amber deposits from the past 130 million years were known in the Northern Hemisphere, leaving the scarcity in southern regions a scientific enigma. The discovery offers rare evidence from Gondwana, the ancient supercontinent that included present-day South America, and reveals what kinds of forests existed during the age of the dinosaurs.

The amber contained not only insects but also pollen, leaves, and fragments of trees, including conifers such as the unusual Monkey Puzzle Tree. Experts emphasized that the preserved material provides unparalleled insight into biodiversity from the Cretaceous era. According to paleoentomologist Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente of Oxford University, amber samples allow researchers to examine interactions between insects and early flowering plants, which later became one of nature’s most successful partnerships. Study co-author Carlos Jaramillo of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute said that geologists and miners had already noted the amber deposits, but systematic investigation began only a decade ago. Specialists added that the find is momentous because amber preserves organisms in remarkable detail, enabling scientists to reconstruct evolutionary relationships and to illuminate the profound interdependence between plants and insects in prehistoric ecosystems.