|  This
amber specimen is an incredibly aesthetic rendering by nature. What
circumstances led to the formation of this beautiful piece of amber?
What interactions between plant, bacterial pathogens and fungi took
place in an ancient rainforest? There is much science involved (see
below), and much natural beauty is the result you see in the pictures.
Regardless, this huge amber, roughly measuring 120 by 65 by 35 and
weighing 139 grams, is chock full of off-white, fluffy, fungal fossil
presenting as sheet- and filament-like structures. Pictures of the
whole piece are shown with and without fiber-optic illumination
to depict what beauty is possible with some creative display lighting.
This specimen can well serve as either an addition to an amber collection
or as beautiful home or office decorator item.
The
great tree of life organizes all living organisms into three domains:
Bacteria, Archaea, and Eucarya. It is only the Eucarya that have
cells with nuclei that contain the genetic material, or genome.
Eucarya, in turn, are organized into five broad Kingdoms: Animalia
 (Metazoans),
Plantae, Chromista, Protista and Fungi.
While
most people harbor a negative view of fungi, they actually comprise
beneficial organisms. We can thank them for many antibiotics, including
penicillin, for leavened bread, Roquefort cheese, beer, wine and
other alcoholic beverages, and some mushrooms. More importantly,
fungi are essential players in many of the mutually beneficial interaction
of life forms (mutualistic symbiosis). Interactions between plants
and fungi can either be beneficial and/or detrimental to the host
plant. A beneficial interaction between plant and fungi is represented
by the arbuscular mycorrhizal, fungus-plant symbiosis. The interaction
represents an ancient association that is beneficial to the host
plant by enhancing absorption of mineral nutrition and increasing
plant tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. The interaction
is invaluable to the fungus by their obtaining carbon from the plant
essential for their lifecycle. Unlike animals, fungi digest their
food before ingesting it.
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