Discovery of a salamander in amber sheds light on evolution of Caribbean islands

Monday, August 17, 2015 - 17:30 in Paleontology & Archaeology

This is the first-ever discovery of a salamander preserved in amber, from an unlikely spot -- the Dominican Republic, where all salamanders are now extinct. More than 20 million years ago, a short struggle took place in what is now the Dominican Republic, resulting in one animal getting its leg bitten off by a predator just before it escaped. But in the confusion, it fell into a gooey resin deposit, to be fossilized and entombed forever in amber.

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