World’s oldest 385-million-year-old amber found in China shifts plant timeline

Researchers in Xinjiang, China, found 385-million-year-old amber fragments in coal, confirming the oldest known amber on record.

The discovery shows that complex plant resin production existed in the early Devonian, pushing the evidence back by about 65 million years.

The find reshapes ideas about how early land plants evolved and defended themselves, based on chemical analysis of the fossil resin.