Can Anthropocene resins (copal) inform us about loss and change of biodiversity?

Amber and copal are resins (fossil and pseudo-fossil, respectively) that functioned as natural traps, preserving ancient organisms with great fidelity even from the distant past. They are therefore windows into past biodiversity. This project has two principal objectives: 1) To resolve open questions regarding the origin (resinous plant and age) of copal from Madagascar and 2) to determine why only a few of the arthropod species that live in resiniferous forests become or became trapped in Recent or fossil resins. The project manager can provide permits for all collected materials upon request.

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Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Geographic coverage
Geographic description East Madagascar
Other info
Last Updated April 24, 2026, 10:21 (UTC)
Created October 26, 2022, 12:41 (UTC)

Responsible parties

Creator and point of contact
Name Mónica M. Solórzano Kraemer
Organization affiliations
Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung

Associated publications

Publication
Link https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-025-02453-y
Publication
Link https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30368-7 https://doi.org/
Publication
Link https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836221074035
Publication
Link https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76808-6
Publication
Link https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239521
Publication
Link https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0232623
Publication
Link https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1802138115
Publication
Link https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2017.08.005

Research data management planning

Types of data that will be / are / were created during the project Taxonomic data , T , a , x , o , n , m , i , c , , d , t
Estimated volume of created data Cannot estimate
Data will be stored at (long-term archived) Supporting information for each paper

Link to this dataset:

https://dataportal.senckenberg.de/dataset/7a39dbd1-ded6-47cb-bb75-fd934734f31f