Overview

• A peer-reviewed study in Communications Earth & Environment documents the amber from the Genoveva quarry within Ecuador’s Hollín Formation.
• Geochemical dating places the resin at about 112 million years old in the early Albian stage of Gondwana.
• Researchers examined 60 aerial amber pieces and identified 21 bio-inclusions from five insect orders plus a fragment of spider web, alongside spores and pollen.
• The fossils indicate a humid, resin-rich low‑latitude forest with early angiosperm leaves and coniferous resin producers such as araucariaceans.
• The lead author describes the deposit as the largest Cretaceous amber occurrence known in the Southern Hemisphere, with further fieldwork underway to recover additional inclusions.