World market and discoveries in amber

This tick trapped in ancient amber from the Dominican Republic can carry the type of bacteria that causes lyme disease. (Photo by George Poinar Jr. courtesy of Oregon State University)

Extracting Baltic amber from Golocene deposits. Gdansk Poland. (Public Domain)

George Poinar (Oregon State University)

George Poinar working in the Amber Lab (Supplied)

This image of an ancient fly in amber more closely shows the strange horn on its head topped by three eyes. (Photos by George Poinar)

The first fossil ever discovered of the asterid family of flowering plants preserved in amber from c.30 million years ago (Photo by George Poinar Jr. courtesy of Oregon State University)

The only known fossil of a bat fly a specimen at least 20 million years old that carried malaria and fed on the blood of bats. (Photo by George Poinar Jr. courtesy of Oregon State University)

This flea preserved about 20 million years ago in amber may carry evidence of an ancestral strain of the bubonic plague. (Photo by George Poinar Jr. courtesy of OSU)

This ancient mayfly trapped 100 million years ago in amber is a new species named Vetuformosa buckleyi. (Photo by George Poinar Jr. courtesy of Oregon State University)