Amber is a hardened tree resin, consisting of compounds of terpenes, alcohols, and esters. Trees produced it as protection against disease and insect infestation when the bark of a tree was opened due to limb that broke away or attacks by wood-boring beetles, or for other reasons. After oozing out, it hardened in wet sediments, such as clay and sand that formed at the bottom of lagoons or river deltas and was preserved in the earth's crust for millenniums.

The chemical composition of the resin acted as desiccant and antibiotic which caused that animals like insects and non-insects (i.e. mosquitoes, flies, spiders, ants and their eggs and emerging larvae) and even lizards and frogs, when caught in the resin, were entrapped and preserved as dehydrated fossil inclusions, but without the shrinking effect dehydrations usually causes. They were kept in such a way that their cellular structure and even fragments of the DNA can still be found today. This fact gave way to the background story of Spielberg's movie 'JURASSIC PARK'

Amber from the Dominican Republic is renowned for the diversity of inclusions it contains. Amber lovers, scientists and collectors alike value Dominican Amber for the three rare "treasures", which are scorpions, lizards and frogs. Probably only 30 to 40 scorpions, 10 to 20 lizards and 8 or 9 frogs have been found worldwide. A piece of Dominican amber was discovered in 1997 and valued at over 50,000 US$. Why? I contained a small frog, preserved in a magnificent way.

The occurrence of insects in Dominican Amber is about 10 times higher than in Baltic amber. Enhydros (air and water inclusions) may enhance the colour effect and add beauty to a piece of amber, even dust particles and stalactite formations might be interesting for scientists, jewelers and collectors alike.

But inclusions like plants, insects, worms or even small vertebrates are even more fascinating. Most specimens are rather small and large size pieces with rare inclusions are highly valuable. In addition, the visibility and the position of the inclusion inside the specimen are important factors.

This is an (incomplete) list of inclusions that can be found in Dominican amber: Insects,
Non-insects and
Vertebrates

Ants

Termites

Beetles

Bees

Mosquitoes

Grasshoppers

Planthoppers

Leafhoppers

Cicadas

Aphids

Flees

Fireflies

Ticks

Butterflies, Moths

Springtails (Collembola)

Crickets

Cockroaches

Centipedes

Millipedes

Barklice

Thrips

True Bugs

Lacewings

Dusty-wings

Beetles

Scorpions / pseudo-scorpions

Spiders

Webspinners

Mantises

Flies

Fireflies

Wasps

Small (Gecko) Lizards

Frogs

Plants and others

Flowers

Mushroom caps

Seeds

Leaves

Stems

Animal hair

Bird feathers

Spider webs

Eggs, Larvae and Pupae

AMBERINCLUSIONS.COM is part of AmbarAzul, LLC . We will not be able to offer you all of these inclusions mentioned above at any given time because some of them are utterly rare and are found only very seldom. When they are found and offered in the catalog, they are usually sold within a short time.

But, since we are located in the Dominican Republic, directly at the source, it is our aim to offer you a constant stream of a variety not many supplier will have available.

Although we do not affirm to recognize each and every single one of the inclusions (even scientist have dissimilar opinions about some of them) we have much at your disposal for your own study and at reasonable prices.

Please consult our pages regularly as there is a constant fluctuation of specimens being offered.