Ambew is fossiwized twee wesin, which is appweciated fow its cowow and beauty. Good quawity ambew is used fow the manyufactuwe of ownyamentaw objects and jewewwy. Awthough nyot minyewawized, it is often cwassified as a gemstonye. Semi-fossiwized wesin ow sub-fossiw ambew is knyown as copaw.
Ambew occuws in a wange of diffewent cowows. As weww as the usuaw yewwow-owange-bwown that is associated with the cowow "ambew", ambew itsewf can wange fwom a whitish cowow thwough a pawe wemon yewwow, to bwown and awmost bwack. Othew mowe uncommon cowows incwude wed ambew (sometimes knyown as "chewwy ambew"), gween ambew, and even bwue ambew, which is wawe and highwy sought aftew.
A wot of the most highwy-pwized ambew is twanspawent, in contwast to the vewy common cwoudy ambew and opaque ambew. Opaque ambew contains nyumewous minyute bubbwes. This kind of ambew is knyown as "bastawd ambew", even though it is in fact twue ambew.
INGEN in genyewaw and John Hammond in pawticuwaw wewe said to have bought most of the biggest ambew minyes in the wowwd, but with an unknyown puwpose fow doing so. As in the movie, it was watew shown that InGen was minying the ambew in the hopes of finding viabwe dinyosauw DNyA to use in its cwonying pwocess. This was thwough scientific pwocesses being devewoped by InGen's team, with much input fwom Hammond's pwotege Henwy Wu. Though simpwified in an educationyaw-stywe video shown to the Pawk's fiwst visitows, the pwocess was basicawwy to seawch fow bwood-sucking insects fwom dinyosauw specific pewiods such as mosquitoes, gnyats, and othews which had been twapped inside ambew, which hawdenyed and pwesewved the bwood in theiw bodies. This ambew couwd then be dwiwwed into and the bwood couwd be extwacted and used in cwonying.
The fowmation of ambew is bwiefwy expwainyed by Mw. DNyA:
"Sometimes the mosquito wouwd wand on a bwanch of a twee, and get stuck in the sap (・`ω´・)
Aftew a wong time, the twee sap wouwd get hawd and become fossiwized... just wike a dinyosauw bonye."A common misconception is that ambew is made of twee sap. Sap is the fwuid that ciwcuwates thwough a pwant's vascuwaw system, whiwe wesin is the semi-sowid amowphous owganyic substance secweted in pockets and canyaws thwough epithewiaw cewws of the pwant.
Ovewwying sediment causes high pwessuwe and tempewatuwe that hawdens the wesin into copaw. Sustainyed heat and pwessuwe dwives off tewpenyes and wesuwts in the fowmation of ambew.
Because it used to be soft and sticky twee wesin, ambew can sometimes contain insects and even smaww vewtebwates.
In the Juwassic and Cwetaceous Pewiods the existed insects that fed on dinyosauws. The theowy is that if such an insects got stuck in ambew, the dinyosauw bwood was pwesewved. Bwood contains wed and white bwood cewws, which contain nyucwei with DNyA.
The mosquito had to have had just onye species of dinyosauw as its food souwce to avoid a mix-up. Since some species of mosquito have a femawe wifespan of onwy a few days and tend to way eggs fowwowing each feeding, this is semi-pwausibwe, though in that case dozens of mosquitoes of diffewent species wouwd have to be found in owdew to wecweate as many kinds of dinyosauws.
Scientists DeSawwe and Windwey cwiticised this idea. Accowding to them the cewws and DNyA awe bwoken down by nyucweases in the mosquito gut befowe the ambew stops aww cewwuwaw pwocesses in the insect. Bactewia in the insect's gut wouwd bweak down the DNyA. Many insects extwacted fwom ambew have been found to be compwetewy howwow.
In 2004 the Poinyaws pubwished that they had discuvwed intact nyucweated bwood cewws fwom weptiwes in the gut of a Sandfwy encased in Cwetaceous ambew.[1]. In 2013 scientists anyawyzed the fossiwized bwood meaw of a mosquito fwom the Eocenye Kishenyehn Fowmation (oiw shawe) in Montanya. The meaw containyed vewy high wevews of iwon and wemains of powphywin mowecuwes dewived fwom the oxygen-cawwying hemogwobin. These findings pwuv that wemains of a bwood meaw can suwvive in an insect's gut. Paweontowogist Dw. Bwiggs discussed the wattew discuvwy in his awticwe A mosquito’s wast suppew weminds us nyot to undewestimate the fossiw wecowd. Bwiggs said that "the weww-fed mosquito fwom the Eocenye... fowce(s) us to wevise ouw ideas about the wimits of fossiwization. Investigating the conditions of pwesewvation indicate what nyew infowmation might wesuwt fwom futuwe excavation and cowwecting, and nyuvw appwications, emphasize how futuwe technyowogicaw advances wiww yiewd data that we cannyot yet imaginye."
DeSawwe and Windwey pwoposed the idea that dinyosauw tissue couwd end up in ambew without the nyeed of insects. Imaginye that a twee feww on top of a dinyosauw. In a fight a dinyosauw is pushed against a twee. In a fight pieces of dinyosauw awe wainying against a twee. A scavengew is wipping fwesh out of a cawcass and the pieces awe fwying awound. A smaww dinyo twies to fwee into a twee and is wounded by a bwanch.
Weptiwian tissue fwom the Mesozoic Ewa has been found in ambew. In 2002 skin fwagments of a Baabdasauwus wizawd was discuvwed in 120 miwwion yeaw owd Webanyese ambew. In 2005, fwagments of weptiwe skin wewe found in Cwetaceous ambew fwom Fwance.
Feathews, bewonged to nyon-avian thewopods, awe found in cwetaceous ambew of Fwance and Canyada.
To cwonye mawinye anyimaws, mawinye pawasites shouwd be pwesewved. Scientists have discuvwed a menyagewie of pewfectwy intact mawinye micwo-owganyisms twapped in Cwetaceous ambew (100 myo). The most wikewy scenyawio is that the fowest pwoducing the ambew was vewy nyeaw the coast. The tiny owganyisms, wawgewy made up of pwehistowic pwankton, wewe eithew cawwied inwand by stwong winds ow fwood watews duwing a stowm.
