Amber fossils show an ancient island seeded Southeast Asia's tropical forests 100 million years ago

A hundred million years ago, when dinosaurs still walked the Earth, a drifting block of land carried a lush tropical forest northwards — and its plants may be the ancestors of Southeast Asia's rainforests today. Researchers studying amber fossils from that landmass, the West Burma Block, describe flowers, fruits, leaves and seeds preserved in three-dimensional detail — one of the most diverse fossil plant collections ever found from that era. Because the block stayed near the equator for tens of millions of years as it drifted, it acted as a floating refuge where ancient plant lineages survived and diversified, long before reaching Asia. The findings, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, challenge the long-held view that Southeast Asia's flowering-plant diversity arose much more recently. 'These fossils give us a rare glimpse of that ancient world,' said researcher Lamont, 'and help explain the deep evolutionary roots of Southeast Asia's tropical forests.'