Amber Dominican

Bacterial spores have been deliberately taken into space, in particular spores of the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. Up to 70 per cent of the bacterial spores survive in the short term for approximately 10 days of exposure to space vacuum. The chances of survival in space are increased if the spores are embedded in chemical protection such as sugars, or salt crystals, or if they are exposed in thick layers. For example, 30 per cent of B. subtilis spores survived for nearly 6 years in space when embedded in salt crystals and 80 per cent survived in the presence of glucose. Bacillus subtilis spores in Dominican amber have remained viable for several million years. Transport to a friendly environment with a source of energy is all that is required for life to be seeded on this planet or the next. 

There are three types of mm light or amber, full-bodied, and aromatic rums. Light rum is also called white rum and is usually colorless having a very light molasses flavor. It is distilled on a multicolumn continuous still at 160—180° proof and can be matured in either glass, stainless steel, or uncharred oak barrels. The age of the mm does not need to be declared on the labels. Light-bodied rums are distilled in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. 

Cano RJ, Borucki MK (1995) Revival and identification of bacterial spores in 25- to 40-million-year-old Dominican amber. Science 268 1060-1064 Carlson RW, Anderson MS, Johnson RE, Smythe WD, Hendrix AR, Barth CA, Soderblom LA, Hansen GB, McCord TB, Dalton JB, Clark RN, Shirley JH, Ocampo AC, Matson DL (1999a) Hydrogen peroxide on the surface of Europa. Science 283 2062-2064 Carlson RW, Johnson RE, Anderson MS (1999b) Sulfuric acid on Europa and the radiolytic sulfuric cycle. Science 26 97-99 Carney RS (1994) Consideration of the oasis analogy for chemosynthetic communities at Gulf of Mexico hydrocarbon vents. Geo-Marine Lett 14 149-159... 

Cano, R.J., and Borucki, M.K. 1995. Revival and identification of bacterial spores in 25- to 40-million-year-old Dominican amber. Science 268 1060-1064. 

Amber can be formed by any plant that produces sap or resin. It is not specific to pine trees, as is commonly believed. The amber found in the Baltic region of Eastern Europe was indeed formed in a huge pine forest that covered that area about 10 million years ago, during the Miocene Epoch. Much of today s commercial amber is mined in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. These deposits are older than the European amber, and were formed by large shrubs in the Pea family. 

Hibbett, D. S., Binder, M. Wang, Z. (2003). Another fossil agaric from Dominican amber. 

Waggoner, B. M. Poinar, G. O. (1992). A fossil myxomycete plasmodium from Eocene-Oligocene amber of the Dominican Republic. Journal of Protozoology, 39, 639 2. 

Samples were obtained on site by T. A. Lee, Jr., C. J. Welch, and R. Lowe. Isolated samples of amber from Simojovel and the sample from the Dominican Republic were provided by G. O. Poinar, Jr. (University of California, Berkeley). The samples of Baltic amber were provided by C. W. Beck (Vassar College). 

Mexican and Dominican Ambers. The Dominican ambers give spectra that are more similar to those of ambers from Mexico but with two significant differences. First, the exomethylene peaks in the spectra of Dominican amber vary in intensity but are always stronger than those of Mexican amber. Second, the spectra of Dominican amber always have an ether resonance near 8 75, which is very small in the spectra of Simojovel samples. The spectra of the Mexican and Dominican samples are very similar in the saturated region from 8 10 to 50. 

On the basis of these comparisons, 13C NMR spectroscopy can easily distinguish the two New World ambers from Baltic amber. Normally, Mexican and Dominican ambers are distinguishable on the basis of the exometh-... 

Figure 2. The fully proton-decoupled 13C NMR spectra of Raltic amber (A, from Stettin) and Dominican amber (B, from Palo Alto).

Amber deposits are found worldwide and are reckoned to be firom 300 to 15 million years old. The two best known deposits are those in the Baltic region and in the Dominican Republic. 

The second most plentiftil amber, that ftom the Dominican Republic, is younger, at between 25 and 15 million years old. Some of it is believed to be die resin finm a shrub of the genus Hymenaea, but several different types occur, with varying ages and different physical properties. 

Dominican amber looks very different from Baltic amber. It is almost always transparent and of yellow to reddish-brown hues, or occasionally a pale greenish-yellow. It contains very large quantities of black substances picked up as it formed (Fig. 1.9). 

As with amber, copal deposits are found worldwide in subtropical regions, for example Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Columbia, Australia, New Zealand, West and East Africa, and Madagascar, to name but a few. Much of that found is probably no more than a few hundred years old, though some is considerably older. 

It is known that Christopher Columbus saw Dominican amber being mined and traded, and amber carvings have been foimd in grave sites in the Americas. But both the graves and Coliunbus s voyage are relatively recent in terms of amber history. The use of Baltic amber has been traced back to the Stone Age. 

Staphylococcus succinus sp. nov., isolated from Dominican amber. Int J Syst Bacteriol 48 511-518... 

The earliest indicator of a malaria parasite (Plasmodium domintcana, precursor of the prevalent Plasmodium juxtanucleare species, which infects birds) was discovered in the body-cavity of a female Culex-mosquito from Tertiary amber in the Dominican Republic a fossil, which is estimated to date back 25 to 45 million years (Fig. 5.163). [411]... 

Mosquito in amber from a mine near the northern Cordillera Septentrional mountain range of the Dominican Republic. 

Amber is a fossd resin, extremely appreciated for its colom and beauty, and used as a gemstone from very early times. Natmal amber deposits are found all around the world, the most famous being the ones from the Baltic sea, the Dominican republic, Sicily, Borneo, Spain, etc. Amber resources are documented in Romania since the late sixteenth century, around the village of Colli (Buzau County), but they have certainly been exploited only starting with the modern age, after 1828, in the same area (Ghiurca, 1999 Wollmann, 19%). 

The maturation of amber takes several million years. The oldest ambers known are of the Carboniferous age (c. 350 Ma) and the youngest are the late Miocene ambers of Borneo (c. 5 Ma). The world s main deposits are of die Baltic amber succinite and deposits in the Dominican Republic. Pinus species-derived Baltic ambers (Eocene-Oligocene c. 35 Ma) are the most widely used for carving and the production of varnishes. Other deposits are known from south-east Asia, Mexico, USA, Canada, Romania, Germany and a few localities in the Mediterranean. 

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