Amber inorganic geochemistry: New insights into the environmental processes in a Cretaceous forest of France

Amber fossils, (microorganisms, arthropods, and plant remains) provide exceptionally well preserved data about past ecosystems, but amber itself was rarely used as a paleoenvironmental tool. Here we present geochemical analyses of mid-Cretaceous amber of southwestern France that demonstrate the preservation of a primary inorganic geochemical signal, especially the Cretaceous ocean strontium isotopic ratio. Our results indicate that inorganic chemical analyses present a potential to uniquely document the paleoenvironmental conditions such as processes of water extraction of amber-producing ecosystems. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.