Age of Cretaceous amber in Myanmar

Abstract

Burmese amber, from Myanmar, has yielded a highly diverse tropical fossil biota, which provides invaluable insights into the Cretaceous forest ecosystems. However, its exact age remains controversial, hampering reliable paleobiologic interpretations. Here, we initially constrain the age of amber from northern Myanmar based on high-precision CA-ID-TIMS U-Pb geochronology. Our results reveal an Albian to early Cenomanian age for the (northern) Burmese amber (~112 Ma for Khamti amber and ~100-98.8 Ma for Kachin amber), which coincides with the onset of magmatism of the Wuntho-Popa Arc. Burmese amber (senso lato) appears to have a protracted depositional history, ranging at least from early Albian to late Campanian. The new geochronology elucidates the origin and early evolution of some important biologic elements and animal behaviours recorded in Burmese amber.