Scientists Just Found the World's Oldest Amber — 385 Million Years Old

A team of paleontologists led by Cihang Luo at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has identified the oldest chemically confirmed amber ever found. The material, recovered from the Hujiersite Formation in China, dates to roughly 385 million years ago, about 140 million years before the first dinosaurs appeared. The findings were published July 16, 2026, in the journal Science Advances.

The team wasn't looking for amber at all. While sifting through about 10 kilograms of coal collected to study fossilized plants, they turned up 241 tiny fragments, most smaller than half a millimeter. Chemical testing showed the resin carried the same molecular hallmarks as amber produced by modern conifers, even though the specific plants that made it haven't been identified. The find pushes back the previous record for chemically confirmed amber, a Late Carboniferous sample dated to about 320 million years, by roughly 65 million years.

Researchers think the find supports the idea that resin production evolved early in plants as a defense mechanism, sealing wounds and fending off insects and pathogens in the harsh Devonian-Carboniferous world, long before amber became famous for preserving the small creatures that later got trapped inside it. Our own amber specimens carry that same story in miniature, just tens of millions of years younger than this record-setting sample: see our amber collection, including pieces like our amber specimens with insect inclusions that show the process at work.

Source: Phys.org, July 2026.

Written by Nic Scogna, a photographer and mineral collector based in Lexington, Kentucky, and the founder of Crystal Earth Gallery and Kyanite King Minerals. For over 25 years, he has traveled to mineral localities across the U.S. — from Maine to California — personally sourcing the specimens, gemstones, and photographic subjects featured here. When not out in the field, Nic writes about mineralogy, collecting, and the craft of turning raw stone into wearable art.