Lebanese Amber:The Oldest Insect Ecosystem in Fossilized Resin
by George Poinar, Raif Milki

This concise volume covers the major aspects of Lebanese amber-- its origins 130 million years ago, its role as a commodity in ancient cultures, and its study and collection today. .

Amber
by Andrerw Ross

This lavishly illustrated work tells how amber is formed, where it is found, and how to distinguish genuine amber inclusions from fakes. Demonstrates the many uses of amber in art as well as science, and recounts the search for DNA from insect inclusions. Detailed keys and color photos provide an identification guide to all the insects and other animals found in amber. Ross is curator of fossil arthropods at The Natural History Museum, London.

Amber: Window to the Past
by David A. Grimaldi

Grimaldi, chair of the American Museum of Natural History's Department of Entomology, has skillfully combined the natural history of amber with coverage of its uses throughout history in art and sculpture. He discusses the properties of various types of amber, its most common localities, the types of life it typically preserves, and examples of past forgeries. .

The Amber Forest: A Reconstruction of a Vanished World.
by George Poinar and Roberta Poinar

Long thought to be unique to the Baltic region, amber--fossilized tree sap, often bearing the remains of ancient plants and animals--is widely distributed throughout the world. Here entomologists George and Roberta Poinar take readers on a tour of one out-of-the-way amber bed, located in the rainforest of the Dominican Republic, that formed over a period between 45 and 15 million years ago. This particular amber, formed mostly from the pungent sap of the algarrobo tree, attracted many curious creatures, including stingless bees and scorpions, as well as bits and pieces of material that happened to be floating by: hairs from a long-extinct Antillean rhinoceros and a saber-toothed tiger, spider webs, and seeds from plants that now take on slightly different forms. The Poinars' findings show that the prehistoric Antilles region, formed from large-scale volcanic and tectonic events, has declined in biodiversity, and they help give a more complete picture of the ancient climate than has hitherto been available.xcellent book... superb photographs... delightfully written... careful research... compact format. Ward's books are consistently well done.

When Life Nearly Died:
The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time
by Michael Benton

Today it is common knowledge that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteorite impact 65 million years ago that killed half of all species then living. Far less well-known is a much greater catastrophe that took place at the end of the Permian period 251 million years ago: 90 percent of life was destroyed, including saber-toothed reptiles and their rhinoceros-sized prey on land, as well as vast numbers of fish and other species in the sea.