The oldest piece of amber, dating back 385 million years, has been discovered in China

The discovery was made by chance. Scientists were studying ancient coal from Xinjiang and shone an ultraviolet torch on it. Some areas glowed bright blue — this is how the researchers spotted hundreds of amber particles, most of which were impossible to see with the naked eye.

The discovery has pushed back the confirmed history of amber by approximately 65 million years. The previous oldest find dated back to the Carboniferous period and was around 320 million years old. The results of the new study have been published in the journal *Science Advances*.

The discovery was revealed by a blue glow

A research team led by Qi Han Luo from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was collecting coal samples in the Huziersite Formation in Xinjiang.

Initially, the scientists had intended to study fossilised plants and the environmental conditions of the Middle Devonian period. They had not expected to find amber.

In the laboratory, the researchers shone ultraviolet light on the coal and noticed bright blue spots. From around ten kilograms of rock, they managed to extract 241 particles of what is believed to be amber.

These are not the usual transparent stones used to make jewellery. Most of the fragments measured between 0.1 and 0.5 millimetres. Some particles were smaller than a grain of sand.

How they confirmed it was amber

Glowing under ultraviolet light alone is not enough to declare the find to be amber. Other organic substances can look similar.

The scientists therefore employed several methods of chemical analysis. Using infrared spectroscopy, they obtained a distinctive molecular ‘fingerprint’ of the substance. Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry enabled them to identify individual compounds preserved within the particles.

Substances characteristic of plant resins and amber were found in the samples, including sesquiterpenes, diterpenes and naphthenic acids. This combination confirmed that the blue particles are indeed fossilised resin.

In some respects, its composition resembles the resins of modern gymnosperms, which include conifers. However, this does not mean that the amber was produced by a pine tree or any other modern tree. The researchers have not yet been able to identify the specific ancient plant.

How the age of the amber is determined

The age of the particles was not measured directly. Scientists determined it based on the coal seam in which the resin was found.

Geologists had previously dated this layer based on its position amongst other rock formations and on fossilised plant spores. It formed during the Middle Devonian period, around 385 million years ago. As the particles were preserved within this coal, the researchers attribute them to the same period.

This is precisely why the authors refer to the find not simply as ancient resin, but as the oldest chemically confirmed amber. Earlier supposed traces of resin had been found before, but their composition had not been established so conclusively.

Why did ancient plants need resin?

Modern plants secrete resin to seal wounds and protect their tissues from infection. It forms a sticky barrier that prevents fungi and other pathogens from penetrating the plant.

Researchers suggest that resin served a similar function as far back as 385 million years ago. During the Devonian period, land plants faced fires, mechanical damage and parasitic fungi.

There is as yet little evidence that ancient arthropods actively fed on plants at that time. The authors therefore believe that resin may originally have evolved not as a defence against herbivorous animals, but as a means of healing wounds and fighting off infections.

This remains a hypothesis for now. Amber confirms that ancient plants were already capable of producing a complex protective resin, but does not reveal the exact reason for the emergence of this ability.

Why this is important

The discovery shows that chemical defences emerged in land plants much earlier than previously thought. The ability to quickly seal off damage may have helped them to survive, spread across land and form more complex ecosystems.

The discovery also changes our understanding of where to look for the oldest amber. Palaeontologists are usually drawn to large, transparent pieces, sometimes containing insects or plant parts. However, early fossilised resin may have been preserved as microscopic particles within coal and fine-grained rocks.

Such particles are easily overlooked during routine examination. A combination of ultraviolet light, microscopy and chemical analysis could help uncover other specimens that have gone unnoticed for decades.

Background

The Devonian Period lasted from approximately 419 to 359 million years ago. During this time, vascular plants spread across the land, deep roots developed and the first forest ecosystems formed.

Dinosaurs emerged much later — more than 150 million years after the resin found here was formed. Therefore, this amber cannot contain dinosaurs or any animals associated with them.

Nor should one expect to find insects inside the fragments themselves. The particles are too small, and the study focuses primarily on the chemical composition of the resin and its place in plant evolution.

Prior to this study, the oldest confirmed amber was a find from the Late Carboniferous period, dating back some 320 million years. The Chinese samples have pushed this record back by approximately 65 million years.

Source

The study by Qihan Lu and his colleagues, ‘The earliest amber from the Middle Devonian of China’, was published in the journal *Science Advances* in 2026.