Dr. Poinar has spent the better part of 30 years searching for amber specimens from all areas of the world. In 1992 he, his son Hendrik, wife Roberta and Dr. Raoul Cano of Berkeley worked together to extract DNA from a Lebanese weevil in amber 125 million years old. Once extracted, techniques such as PCR were used to sequence the ancient DNA- the experiment was a success! Genetic tissue entombed for over 100 million years was found to match live species of weevils existing today. Wonderful as it was, the discovery does not come without controversy. This particular weevil is a rare and only known specimen. Other scientists in the field of ancient life in amber don't always agree with each other on how research should be conducted. Decide for yourself. Read the book and get the facts as they are presented. We'd appreciate comments and may even pass them on directly to the good doctor and his staff.
*Coming soon is
a review of The Amber Forest: Reconstruction of a Vanished World,
published in 1999. Sorry it's taken so long to read one book, but
I'm easily distracted. Following that, will be a few words on his
latest book on Lebanese amber, out in 2001.
George Poinar is currently a research fellow at Oregon State University where he has been since 1995. Roberta and George opened The Amber Institute in Oregon. Previously both were on staff at the University of California at Berkeley. From Cornell University, he earned his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D's in biological sciences. Photos and articles about amber have appeared in numerous publications and newspapers. As of 2000, he has new publications out on parasites in amber, primarily nematodes. He will soon release a paper about a nematode parasite found with a spider in Baltic amber, and has one in print now about two hairworms found coming out of the body of a cockroach in Dominican. Sounds really gross, but he's into this stuff. One other book to check out is the precursor to Quest, titled Life in Amber published in October of 1992 by the Stanford University Press. A CD-rom program with photo images of amber and insects accompanies the book. In July of 1999, Dr. Poinar released The Amber Forest, Princeton University Press. The focus of this book is the origin of Dominican amber and the creatures and plants found entombed within.
One cantankerous debate that keeps rearing its ugly head is the argument over what is copal, and what is amber. The country of Colombia is a very dangerous place to go prospecting. Drug lords hold claim to parts of the terrain that contain these resins, and some brave souls that have ventured in to try and extract them have never been seen again. So far, all resins that have been tested from there test out as copal, or immature amber. There is not a safe way to gather other samples from rock strata to confirm or deny ages claimed by dealers on auction sites. Copal from Colombia is no more than a few hundred to a few thousand years old, yet many unscrupulous dealers on the Internet auctions try to pass it off as true amber. Dr. Poinar recently published a paper on the subject that is short, clear and concise. If you'd like a copy of it, contact me or Ron Cauble of The Bone Room website. Sorry, I don't have the name of the publication it appeared in, and when I do I'll post it. I will also soon post a couple of links to sites with bibliographies of his research work.
Roberta Poinar is an electron microscopist who attended Berkeley. When she began working in the Insect Pathology Unit in 1970, the two teamed up on their first amber project and have been inseparable partners personally and professionally ever since. Roberta is currently retired from the electron microscope biz and still working with George on projects concerning amber.
The Poinar's son Hendrik was also instrumental in working with the DNA extraction from the Lebanese weevil with Dr. Raoul Cano. Currently, Hendrik is a PhD student in Svante Paabo's lab at the Zoological Institute at the University of Munich.
Books by George O. Poinar and Roberta Poinar:
Life in Amber, 1992
The Quest for Life in Amber, 1995
The Amber Forest: Reconstruction of a Vanished World, 1999
Lebanese Amber: The Oldest Insect Ecosystem in Fossilized Resin,
2001
Please check
out Amazon.com for more of Dr. Poinar's technical papers and publications
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