Diptera: Chironomidae
A rich source of amber from the Genoveva quarry in the Napo Province of Ecuador is revealing information about life in a dense, tropical rainforest 112 million years ago, requiring the most convoluted of mental gymnastics for creationists to ignore or deny. This newly described deposit, part of the Hollín Formation in the Oriente Basin, represents the first Mesozoic amber deposit with preserved insects ever discovered in South America — and one of the largest known anywhere on the former Gondwanan supercontinent.
Unlike rock fossils, where finer detail is often lost through mineralisation and geological processes, amber frequently preserves plant and animal life with exquisite microscopic precision. This makes the Ecuadorian deposit, produced at a time when Gondwana was on the verge of splitting into Africa and South America, a rare and invaluable window into the humid, densely vegetated ecosystem of an equatorial rainforest during the Cretaceous Period.
Amber is the solidified resinous sap of trees — often conifers such as araucariaceans — and can originate from branches, trunks or even roots, preserving both aerial and subterranean organisms. Almost all known amber deposits come from the northern hemisphere, particularly from Eurasia and North America, so this southern hemisphere deposit provides an unprecedented opportunity to study an ancient Gondwanan ecosystem at a crucial time in Earth’s evolutionary history.
The contrast between this rich, 112-million-year-old ecosystem and the simplistic biblical creation myth is as stark as it could be. Even if we had no other fossils, the life forms trapped in this amber — representing at least five insect orders, spider silk, and an abundance of pollen and spores from ferns, cycads, conifers and early angiosperms — would comprehensively refute the notion of a young Earth created in its present form.
Another strength of amber as a fossil medium is that it is always contemporaneous with the bioinclusions it preserves — organisms became trapped while the resin was still liquid — removing the additional uncertainties sometimes introduced when dating fossils embedded in sedimentary matrices.
The Hollín Formation, Oriente Basin, Ecuador.The discovery of this extraordinary amber source, by a team including Professor Xavier Delclòs of the Faculty of Earth Sciences and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) at University of Barcelona, and what it reveals of the local ecosystem 112 million years ago, is the subject of an open-access paper in Communications Earth & Environment and a press release by the University of Barcelona.Location and Geological Context
The Oriente - Ecuador's Amazonian region.
The Hollín Formation is a Cretaceous geological formation located within the Oriente Basin of eastern Ecuador. The Oriente Basin is part of the upper Amazon Basin and forms one of the country’s most important sedimentary basins — both scientifically and economically. It lies along the eastern foothills of the Andes and extends into the Amazonian lowlands.
Age and Composition
The Hollín Formation dates to the Albian stage of the Lower Cretaceous (approximately 112 million years ago). It consists mainly of quartz sandstones, siltstones and occasional shales, reflecting fluvial and deltaic depositional environments. Within these sediments, pockets of fossil resin (amber) have been discovered, providing a unique record of tropical ecosystems during the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana.
Palaeoenvironment
During the Albian, this region was a humid tropical rainforest, dominated by ferns, cycads, early flowering plants, and resin-producing conifers (probably araucariaceans). The sediments of the Hollín Formation accumulated in low-lying floodplains and river channels, which favoured both resin production and its rapid burial — ideal conditions for amber preservation.
Scientific Significance
- First Mesozoic amber deposit with bioinclusions found in South America.
- Amber samples from this formation contain fossilised insects, spider silk, and abundant pollen and spores, offering direct evidence of equatorial biodiversity during the Early Cretaceous.
- Provides a southern hemisphere counterpart to better-known northern amber deposits (e.g. Baltic and Burmese amber), filling an important gap in the global fossil record.
Economic Relevance
The Hollín Formation is also a major oil reservoir, one of the most productive in Ecuador. The presence of hydrocarbons has affected the chemistry of the amber over millions of years, but many inclusions remain well preserved despite this.
First Mesozoic amber deposit with preserved insects discovered in South America
A scientific team has discovered the first Mesozoic amber deposit with preserved insects in South America in the province of Napo (Ecuador). The discovery, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, reveals that 112 million years ago there was a tropical rainforest with ferns, cycads and angiosperm plants, and describes a unique scenario for understanding the rich biodiversity and Cretaceous ecosystems in the southern hemisphere, little studied so far in the fossil amber record.
The discovery, which took place in the province of Napo (Ecuador), opens a unique window into the past: it provides insight into the rich biodiversity of a dense, humid tropical forest in the southern hemisphere some 112 million years ago, when the modern continents broke away from the supercontinent Gondwana and large reptiles dominated the terrestrial ecosystems.This is the largest Mesozoic amber deposit in South America and one of the richest in Gondwana with bioinclusions. It is part of a recently discovered deposit in the Hollín Formation — detrital sedimentary rock levels of the Oriente Basin in Ecuador — and is dated to the Albian stage of the Lower Cretaceous, with well-preserved terrestrial arthropod remains (insects and spider web remains).
Professor Xavier Delclòs, fist author
Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà,
Facultat de Ciències de la Terra
Universitat de Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain.
The amber comes from a fluvial-lacustrine environment at the Genoveva quarry site (in the Tena region of the Amazon region). The resin-producing trees were probably araucariaceous conifers, according to geochemical and palynological analyses.
This study outlines a new framework for understanding equatorial ecosystems during the Cretaceous and the biogeographical relationships of their components when the modern continents broke away from the supercontinent Gondwana. Teams from the Spanish Geological and Miner Institute National Center (IGME-CSIC), the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Panama), the University of Rosario (Colombia), the Escuela Politécnica Nacional (Ecuador) and the Senckenberg Natural History Museum Frankfurt (Germany), among other institutions, have also participated in the study.Everything indicates that the ancient ecosystem was wooded, humid and diverse, and has the oldest known association of angiosperm leaves in north-western South America.
Professor Xavier Delclòs.
Dense, damp forest with resin-producing trees
The study analysed 60 amber samples and identified 21 bioinclusions, with representatives of five insect orders, including Diptera (flies), Coleoptera (beetles) and Hymenoptera (ants and wasps), together with one spider web fragment. No plant remains were found within the amber, but a wide variety of plant fossils were identified in the rock samples, including spores, pollen and leaves.
The team has analysed samples of amber and surrounding rock from the Genoveva mine in Ecuador and identified two different types of amber: one formed underground around the roots of resin-producing plants (without inclusions) and another that formed when the resin was exposed in the air (with inclusions).
This amber is chemically mature and altered by exposure to oil, as the Hollín Formation is an oil source rock, and is currently commercially exploited.
Professor César Menor-Salván, co-author
Departamento de Biología de Sistemas
Universidad de Alcalá
Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.
Mostly chironomid and ceratopogonid dipterans were found, as well as springtails, coleoptera, hymenoptera, trichoptera, hemiptera and a fragment of a spider web. The insects point to the presence of freshwater bodies and a tropical rainforest in which the presence of rare families stands out, such as the wasps †Stigmaphronidae
Enrique Peñalver, co-author
Instituto Geológico y Minero de España-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IGME-CSIC)
Madrid, Spain.These characteristics contrast with the arid conditions observed in other South American deposits of the same age, such as the Crato Formation on the eastern margin of South America. In this case, no evidence of fire has been found, unlike many contemporary amber deposits in the northern hemisphere, probably due to the high humidity.[T]he pollen and macrofossils identified in the rocks that contained the amber reveal a forest with pteridophytes (ferns and related species), Araucariaceae and Cheirolepidaceae conifers, cycads and early angiosperms. [E]piphytic fungi have also been detected on the fossil leaves and resinicolous fungi.
Carlos Jaramillo, co-author.
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Panama City, Panama.
Experts stress that the discovery of this amber deposit is of great scientific relevance for future studies of this period.
Future excavations could help connect South American biodiversity with other regions of Gondwana, such as Antarctica, Australia and South Africa, where Cretaceous amber has also been found.
Monica M. Solórzano-Kraemer, co-author
Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum, Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Publication:
Cretaceous amber of Ecuador unveils new insights into South America’s Gondwanan forestsThe discovery of this Ecuadorian amber deposit is far more than a remarkable fossil find — it’s a direct glimpse into the biodiversity and ecological complexity of an equatorial rainforest 112 million years ago. The exquisite preservation of insect life, spider silk, and plant microfossils offers a detailed snapshot of a thriving ecosystem during the Early Cretaceous, when flowering plants were emerging and Gondwana was in the final stages of fragmentation.
Xavier Delclòs, Enrique Peñalver, Carlos Jaramillo, Edwin Cadena, César Menor-Salván, José Luís Román, Rafael Francisco Castaño-Cardona, David Peris, Marcelo Carvalho, Daniela Quiroz-Cabascango, Mónica R. Carvalho, Patrick Blomenkemper, Fabiany Herrera, Patricio Santamarina, Maxime Santer, Galo Carrera & Mónica M. Solórzano-Kraemer
Communications Earth & Environment volume 6, Article number: 745 (2025)
Abstract
Amber, a fossilised resin, became widespread during the Barremian ( ~ 122 Ma), marking the onset of the Cretaceous Resinous Interval (125–72 Ma). While common in the Northern Hemisphere, amber containing terrestrial arthropod inclusions had not previously been reported from the Mesozoic of South America. Here, we report the major occurrence of such amber from the early Albian ( ~ 112 Ma) Hollín Formation in Ecuadorian Napo region. Discovered at the Genoveva quarry, the amber is associated with coeval pollen and plant macrofossils deposited in fluvio-lacustrine environments. Geochemical analyses suggest araucariacean trees as the resin source, while palynological and macrofloral data indicate moderately diverse forests and the earliest known angiosperm leaf assemblage from north-western South America. Arthropods (hexapods and arachnids) representing at least six orders are well preserved. These findings provide direct evidence of a humid, resinous forest ecosystem and its arthropod fauna in equatorial Gondwana during the Cretaceous Resinous Interval.
Introduction
Although evidence of amber has been known from the Carboniferous, it only became abundant and rich in bioinclusions from the Barremian (Early Cretaceous)1. During the Cretaceous, there was a marked bias towards an overrepresentation of amber deposits in the Northern Hemisphere compared to the Southern Hemisphere, making any new deposit especially valuable for reconstructing the palaeobiology and biodiversity of Gondwanan forests. Apart from the Middle-East ambers found in Lebanon, Jordan, and the African Congo containing bioinclusions1,2, only a few additional Early Cretaceous amber-bearing deposits, all lacking bioinclusions, have been documented in Gondwana3 (Supplementary Data 1).
In Ecuador, Cretaceous amber has been sporadically reported from petroleum drilling cores and outcrops4,5,6. However, its occurrence has never yielded quantities sufficient for conducting palaeontological studies; rather, these reports have merely confirmed its presence at specific stratigraphic levels. Here, we report a rich and unique early Cretaceous deposit from the Napo Province in Ecuador (Fig. 1), which constitutes the most substantial amber deposit discovered in the Mesozoic of South America (Fig. 2). This amber deposit was formed during the Cretaceous Resinous Interval, a time between the Barremian and the Campanian characterised by extensive resin production by conifers3.
The amber-bearing deposit is located in the boundary area between the Subandine Zone and the Oriente Basin (Fig. 1a), in the Napo region, in the eastern part of the Ecuadorian Andes. The sedimentary history of the Oriente Basin during the Cretaceous comprises, from base to top, the deposits of the Hollín, Napo and the lower member of the Tena formations (Fig. 1b), which contain major petroleum reservoirs7,8,9. This sedimentation occurred continuously between the Aptian and the Maastrichtian stages (121.4–66 Ma) and is characterised by a succession of sandstones, limestones, and shales subdivided in five sedimentary cycles10,11,12. These clastic deposits, overlaying a pre-Aptian basement13, show drastic palaeogeographic changes and substantial lateral and vertical facies variations12.Fig. 1: Geological setting of the amber-bearing area and distribution of the Hollín Formation in Ecuador.
a Geographic location of the studied area and distribution of the Hollín Formation in Ecuador, modified from ref. 12. b Synthetic stratigraphic column of the Cretaceous formations in the Oriente Basin; SB, sedimentary cycle boundary; modified from ref. 11. c Geological map of the studied area; modified from ref. 52. Ages of the geological formations from ref. 53. The white stars represent the studied quarries: (1) Genoveva quarry (−0.71019°/−77.7875°), (2) Pungarayacu quarry (−0.7065°/−77.7436°), (3) Río Misahuallí quarry (−1.0007°/ −77.6735°).
Fig. 2: Genoveva Quarry, Archidona (Napo Region, Ecuador); Hollín Formation, 2022.
a Working face of the quarry; white arrow indicates the amber level G1, lower Albian in age. b Fieldworks in the level G1; this level is the richest in amber of the quarry. c Detail of the level G1, showing the abundant amber pieces with plant debris it contains, formed in a lacustrine palaeoenvironment. Scale bar: 10 cm (c).
The most rich and fossiliferous amber-bearing deposit is placed in the Hollín Formation (early Aptian–middle Albian in age; 120–108 Ma, Supplementary Data 2), which corresponds to the base of the oldest depositional sequence or sedimentary cycle I11, which spans the upper Aptian–upper Albian stages (Fig. 1b). This depositional sequence, encompassing the Hollín Formation and the lower members of the Napo Formation, is characterised by the transition of facies, from east to west, from fluvial and estuarine environments to a shallow marine platform, under a transgressive regime11,14. Eustatic changes on a global scale exerted regional control over sediment distribution8,15, with amber accumulations typically occurring at the peak of regression.
The area where the amber has been discovered lies within the Napo Province, encompassing the Tena and Archidona cantons (Fig. 1c). Due to the topography and vegetation coverage of the Amazonia, the sampling of fossils within the Hollín Formation necessitates limiting the exploration to quarries or riverbanks, where previous research has confirmed the presence of amber4,16. Consequently, three operational quarries were investigated: the largest and richest in amber being the Genoveva quarry (Fig. 2), the Pungarayacu quarry (catalogued as Geosite), both located in the Hollín Principal Member, and a smaller quarry, Río Misahuallí quarry, located alongside the Misahuallí River, north of Puerto Misahuallí town (Supplementary Fig. 1), in the Hollín Superior Member, of the Hollín Formation (Fig. 1b).
A substantial amber deposit containing bioinclusions was discovered at the Genoveva quarry, which is the focus of this study, and includes three amber-rich levels (G1–G3, Fig. 2c and Supplementary Figs. 1–3). The strata in this quarry reveal a vertical evolution of various palaeoenvironments (Supplementary Fig. 3), including proximal braided rivers, lacustrine systems, hyperpycnal flows, and distal braided rivers6 during the Albian (see before, Genoveva botanical assemblage and amber age). The petroleum saturation of the surrounding sandstone has provided a degree of physical protection to this amber, potentially limiting exposure to other degrading agents. However, this prolonged contact with petroleum has also resulted in its chemical transformation, imparting specific characteristics. For further details on geology, we refer the reader to Supplementary Data 2.
Fig. 3: Two types of amber from the Genoveva quarry.
a–c Large amber pieces (kidney-shaped), formed from resin exuded from roots in confined conditions, are the most common pieces in the outcrop, but they lack bioinclusions. d–h Small or medium-sized amber pieces (stalactite-shaped), formed from resin exuded from trunks or branches in aerial conditions, are scarce, but some of them contain bioinclusions. The pieces (d–h) will be housed at the Laboratory of Palaeontology, Escuela Politécnica Nacional, in Quito (Ecuador). Scale bars: 1 cm (d–f), 5 mm (g, h).
Fig. 4: Insect inclusions found in the Genoveva amber.
a Diptera: Ceratopogonidae, Archiaustroconops (N-113-JR-2022-19). b Diptera: Chironomidae (N-113-JR-2022-02). c Diptera: Dolichopodidae, Microphorites n. sp. (N-113-JR-2022-13). d Diptera: Chironomidae (N-113-JR-2022-12). e Trichoptera (N-113-JR-2022-18), incomplete specimen showing the fore wing venation in this view. f, g Coleoptera: Tetratomidae (N-113-JR-2022-01); 3D virtual extraction (synchrotron) (f), optical image (g). h Hymenoptera: †Stigmaphronidae (N-113-JR-2022-04). i Hymenoptera: Scelionidae (N-113-JR-2022-08). All will be housed at the Laboratory of Palaeontology, Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito (Ecuador). Scale bars: 1 mm (e), 0.5 mm (a–d, h, i), 0.2 mm (f, g).
Fig. 5: Plant diversity (macrofossils and pollen grains) from the Hollín Formation at the Genoveva quarry.
a Selaginella. b–d Diverse fern pinnules. e Strap-shaped Araucariaceae leaf. f Cupressaceae branch. g Isolated cuticle of a probable Podocarpaceae leaf. h, i Isolated cuticle of Ginkgo-like leaf, note stomata with papillae. j Detail of †Cheirolepidiaceae leaf, note stomatal bands. k–m Diverse angiosperm leaves showing different types of venation and leaf shapes. n, o Araucariaceae pollen grains: Araucariacites australis, Balmeiopsis limbatus, respectively. p Angiosperm pollen: Retitricolpites operculatus. q Pollen grain with unknown affinity: Reyrea polymorphus. Photographed under epifluorescence in (h–j). Scale bars: 1 cm (c–f, l), 5 mm (a, b, k, m), 500 µm (g, h, j), 200 µm (i), 10 µm (n–q).Delclòs, X., Peñalver, E., Jaramillo, C. et al.
Cretaceous amber of Ecuador unveils new insights into South America’s Gondwanan forests.
Commun Earth Environ 6, 745 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02625-2
Copyright: © 2025 The authors.
Published by Springer Nature Ltd. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
Such finds serve as a powerful independent line of evidence for deep time and evolution. They show not only that the Earth is vastly older than a few thousand years, but also that the modern biosphere is the product of long, dynamic evolutionary change. The organisms entombed in this resin lived, reproduced, interacted and died tens of millions of years before humans — or even primates — ever appeared.
In the absence of any other fossil evidence, this one site alone would refute creationism, It captures a vanished world and records biological and geological processes entirely consistent with evolutionary theory — and utterly at odds with the idea of a young, static creation. The amber of the Hollín Formation speaks across the ages with a clarity that no apologetic rhetoric can silence.
Each such discovery adds another page to Earth’s deep history, exposing the creation myths for what they are: human inventions, not scientific explanations.
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