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| Best of Photographers |
| I would like to draw your attention to a new book about amber. |
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The author, Eric Geirnaert from France, is an amber enthusiast who has been studying amber for 20 years. Eric was the winner of the international contest "Le Mystère de la Chambre Jaune" ("The Mystery of the Yellow Room") presented at the International Congress of inclusions in amber (Vitoria-Gasteiz 20 - 23 October 1998). The award was the conclusion of a scientific competition that the journal LA RECHERCHE proposed in issue no. 288 of June 1996 : it was requested to explain what was the reason that pushed 88 ants towards the trap of amber. The winning result, that is the hypothesis made by Eric, was published in eleven pages of the issue no. 298 of May 1997. The curriculum of Eric regarding the study of amber includes also the prize obtained in September 2000, at the 18th International Show of Mineralogy of Villeneuve d' Ascq, where he was awarded for the rarest amber inclusion. |
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But now talk about the new book: Eric has just finished his work which will be published next May, 2002. The title of the book (in French) is :
L'AMBRE,MIEL DE FORTUNE ET MEMOIRE DE VIE (AMBER, HONEY OF FORTUNE AND MEMORY OF LIFE)
(Editions du Piat, 180 pages, 220 photos, 24 x 17 cm, ISBN : 2-9513274-3-9).
It contains amazing images of inclusions in fossil resins: you will find incredible insects (one is 11-cm long ! ! !), high-definition images of ants, wasps, flies, mosquitoes. You will see an ancients seed caught by resin while it was germinating; also presented are rare inclusions of marine animals (such as a shrimp, a polyp, a small freshwater fish) and terrestrial animals (such as a lizard and a snake).
The book is intended for the general public, but it contains accurate information derived from most specific and new scientific data, as attested by the huge list of references. The volume wants to be also a practical guide for the study of amber; a section is devoted to a simplified recognition of inclusions. Useful suggestions will help the reader to take superb images of inclusions in amber.
If you wish to have an idea of the content of the book, you may take a look at the web site (http://ambre.jaune.free.fr/) showing a preview of some of the many spectacular photos. By using the mouse (hidden behind the images) you will see many galleries.
The discovery of the web site is like a game, and the site should be watched carefully and very slowly. By using the mouse over the images you will discover hidden Links. An ant which moves, a planet which changes color, an amber which produces light. All these objects are inputs towards new pages.
For example, behind the planet and by choosing the small ant, rare images are shown here:
http://ambre.jaune.free.fr/best_of.html
Also you can use the shortcut to these web pages
http://ambre.jaune.free.fr/visu_galerie1.html for scorpion and spider
presentation;
http://ambre.jaune.free.fr/visu_galerie2.htmlfor a Colubridae snake;
http://ambre.jaune.free.fr/visu_galerie3.html for other singular inclusions....
and http://ambre.jaune.free.fr/visu_galerie4.html for several rare inclusions;
for example the presentation of the 11-cm-long insect in a fossil resin.
In the same page you will see a specimen of fossil wood from the resin-producing tree that gave a rare kind of French amber. The photo shows even the resin-secreting channels! This discovery is single in the world. Being 30 cm long, this specimen constitutes one of the greatest discovery of wood associated with amber. The material comes from an extremely rare site located within the layers of Oise (France) aged 54 - 56 M.A.; the fossil wood shows also the galleries of a xylophagous insect (perhaps a Scolytidae coleopter). It is well known that the botanical affinity of amber is very often problematic, since wood associated with the resin is easily lost during fossilization. So discoveries which attest paleobotanical origin of amber are extremely rare. The discovery of a portion of the amber-producing tree presented by Eric in the French layers is unique : the amber of Oise is stored in a primary deposit which was not disrupted. However the material
remained in a corrosive acidic medium, making the pieces friable. Wood is partially covered with pyrite and fortunately this process stabilized the fragile structure.
Here you can see about the possibility to extract inclusions from amber or other fossil-subfossil resins in order to study them:
http://ambre.jaune.free.fr/plume.html
And more you might see at http://ambre.jaune.free.fr/poster.htm . Great "poster" images!
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The author, Eric Geirnaert |
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| Last update 08.23.2002 |
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