Miocene instead of cretaceous: a reappraisal of the age of Ethiopian amber
Abstract
Amber from Ethiopia has been initially reported as supposedly deriving from a geologic unit named the Debre Libanos Sandstone and dated as early Late Cretaceous in age (Cenomanian, ca. 93-95 Ma). But the subsequent discovery of almost exclusively extant genera among the enclosed arthropods questioned the assumed Cretaceous age. Here, we re-examined palynomorphs from material of the previous study and investigated additional material obtained from fieldwork in the Amhara Region or available from various collections. Our new geological, geochemical, palynological, and palaeoentomological data provide compelling evidence for a younger, Cenozoic age of the amber, most likely Early Miocene (16-23 Ma). Palynomorphs from the amber-bearing sediments have yielded large numbers of typically long ranging Cenozoic pollen, some of which are particularly abundant in Lower Miocene layers of nearby basins of South Sudan. The chemical characterization of the amber and palaeobotanical data suggest that the resin was produced by a legume tree (Fabaceae), likely Hymenaea or a close relative in Detarieae. Fossil arthropods and plants retrieved from the new amber samples show a high diversity and are typical of assemblages in Neogene ambers. A particular reference to ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) is made here, which include 245 individuals mostly assignable to extant genera within the subfamilies Dolichoderinae, Myrmicinae, Ponerinae, and Pseudomyrmecinae, and only few extinct or undetermined genera. Ethiopian amber inclusions show that tropical moist forests persisted on the Ethiopian Plateau until the Early Miocene. Although Ethiopian amber is much younger than previously assumed, it is of exceptional value as it is one of only two fossiliferous African ambers known to date, and as Miocene forest biomes are exceedingly poorly documented in Africa.
Related
- Breaking the habit. A commentary on ‘Fossil flowers of Ayenia (Malvaceae) preserved in amber: evidence for lianas in Miocene rainforest of Southeast China’
- Fossil flowers of Ayenia (Malvaceae) preserved in amber: evidence for lianas in Miocene rainforest of southeast China
- New fossil species of Trechinae (Coleoptera: Carabidae) from mid-Cretaceous French amber helps refining the age of the subfamily and its tribes under total-evidence dating
- 3D models related to the publication : Nouvelles données géologiques et biostratigraphiques du gisement paléontologique à vertébrés de Mauvières, à Marcilly-sur-Maulne (Miocène Inférieur et Moyen ; Indre-et-Loire, France)
- Paleolelaps draco Tselikh & Rasplus gen. et sp. nov., the first fossil record of Diparidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) from Eocene Baltic amber
BibTeX
@article{bouju2026miocene,
title = {{Miocene instead of cretaceous: a reappraisal of the age of Ethiopian amber}},
author = {Valentine Bouju and Vincent Perrichot and Alexander R Schmidt and Jim Cole and Laurent Jeanneau and Balemwal Atnafu and Bo Wang and Błażej Bojarski and Jacek Szwedo},
journal = {Gondwana Research},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1016/j.gr.2026.08.022},
url = {https://insu.hal.science/insu-05766687v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Miocene instead of cretaceous: a reappraisal of the age of Ethiopian amber
AU - Valentine Bouju
AU - Vincent Perrichot
AU - Alexander R Schmidt
AU - Jim Cole
AU - Laurent Jeanneau
AU - Balemwal Atnafu
AU - Bo Wang
AU - Błażej Bojarski
AU - Jacek Szwedo
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/28
JO - Gondwana Research
DO - 10.1016/j.gr.2026.08.022
UR - https://insu.hal.science/insu-05766687v1
AB - Amber from Ethiopia has been initially reported as supposedly deriving from a geologic unit named the Debre Libanos Sandstone and dated as early Late Cretaceous in age (Cenomanian, ca. 93-95 Ma). But the subsequent discovery of almost exclusively extant genera among the enclosed arthropods questioned the assumed Cretaceous age. Here, we re-examined palynomorphs from material of the previous study and investigated additional material obtained from fieldwork in the Amhara Region or available from various collections. Our new geological, geochemical, palynological, and palaeoentomological data provide compelling evidence for a younger, Cenozoic age of the amber, most likely Early Miocene (16-23 Ma). Palynomorphs from the amber-bearing sediments have yielded large numbers of typically long ranging Cenozoic pollen, some of which are particularly abundant in Lower Miocene layers of nearby basins of South Sudan. The chemical characterization of the amber and palaeobotanical data suggest that the resin was produced by a legume tree (Fabaceae), likely Hymenaea or a close relative in Detarieae. Fossil arthropods and plants retrieved from the new amber samples show a high diversity and are typical of assemblages in Neogene ambers. A particular reference to ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) is made here, which include 245 individuals mostly assignable to extant genera within the subfamilies Dolichoderinae, Myrmicinae, Ponerinae, and Pseudomyrmecinae, and only few extinct or undetermined genera. Ethiopian amber inclusions show that tropical moist forests persisted on the Ethiopian Plateau until the Early Miocene. Although Ethiopian amber is much younger than previously assumed, it is of exceptional value as it is one of only two fossiliferous African ambers known to date, and as Miocene forest biomes are exceedingly poorly documented in Africa.
SN - 1342-937X
SN - 1878-0571
ER -