NEW DELHI, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- A rich collection of insect fossils preserved in amber in India shows a greater amount of prehistoric biodiversity than scientists say they expected.
German and U.S. researchers say the 52-million-year-old fossils of bees, ants, gnats, flies, termites and other insects discovered in amber deposits in western India reveal a wider range of insects than India's geological history would suggest, ScienceNews.org reported Monday.
At the time the amber formed, India was in a period of isolation.
The tectonic plate carrying it had separated from Madagascar about 40 million years earlier, and was just about to collide with the Asian plate that would eventually give rise to the Himalayas.
Scientists had believed that 40-million-year isolation could have choked off biological diversity in much the same way Australia's isolation affected its array of wildlife.
But the wide range of species found in the newly discovered amber suggest continental isolation does not necessarily lead to limited diversity, they say.
