Cortina Inverno

In the
beginning
it was...
A
secret that had been guarded
for 230 million years in the amber
of the Tofane was discovered
last August by an international
research team in cooperation with
the group of paleontologists from the University of
Padova and the research team of the Institute of
Geoscience and Georesources of the C.N.R. (National
Council for Research).
The exceptional finding occurred while analyzing
70,000 fragments of amber containing samples
of animal or vegetable material collected near
Cortina; included were two mites and one mosquito
— belonging to now extinct species — which
remained trapped in resin drops produced by the
conifers of the Dolomites.
«In 2006, the research team had already published
the results on the study of bacteria and
protozoa contained in the Dolomite amber. These
samples proved to be incredibly similar to microorganisms
which exist today — declared Eugenio
Ragazzi from the University of Padova, one of the
authors of the study published on the American
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of
Science. Before this discovery, the oldest known
samples of animal organisms included in amber
dated back to about 130 million years ago». The
new findings show a geographic shift as well, because
the oldest evidence so far had been found in
an area between Lebanon and Jordan.
«Amber is an extremely precious instrument
for paleontologists because it preserves samples
with microscopic accuracy, enabling us to formulate
very accurate evaluations of evolutionary
changes over a span of millions of years»: declared
David Grimaldi, one of the world’s best experts on
arthropods preserved in amber, and curator of the
invertebrate zoology section for the American Museum
of Natural History in New York.
Geo & Geo
Thanks to the exceptional state of preservation,
two of the three arthropods were identified
as new species and named Ampezzoa triassica
and Triasacarus fedelei, to honour Cortina born
Paolo Fedele who had indicated the layer in 1997.
The two arthropods are in all respects similar to
eriophyidae, phytophagus insects: they lived in
a period before flowering plants existed, which is
why they fed on coniferous leaves belonging to the
extinct family of Cheirolepidiaceae, the same tree
which produced the resin where they were found.
Researchers have observed that «it is incredible to
think that, notwithstanding all the evolutionary
processes, 100 million years before the appearance
of flower plants or dinosaurs, eriophyidae were almost
similar to today’s species.»
Scienza e natura spiegate
anche ai più piccoli. da goccia
a gioiello: il meraviglioso
viaggio dell’ambra è il
laboratorio organizzato per
i per bambini dai 5 ai 12 anni
dal Museo incanta, rassegna di
animazione museale.
Info: + 39 346 6677369,
didattica.musei@regole.it
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