For many thousands of years, the fossilized tree resin known as amber has entranced jewelry makers and inspired the scientific imagination. For the past 200 years especially, paleontologists around the world have turned to amber to understand the ancient past—by studying the amazing fossils preserved within it. 

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Plants secrete many kinds of viscous liquids, such as latexes, gums, and waxes. Some kinds of plants, usually woody plants, produce resins: complex, sticky substances that don’t dissolve in water and harden when exposed to the air.

Resins serve to scab over plants’ wounds, making them sort of like the platelets in our bloodstream. When a plant that makes resin gets injured or otherwise has a