Amber with 40 insects and a lizard

A lizard inclusion in amber is usually the impossible dream for even the most serious amber collectors. "Non-existent" is a far better characterization of the phenomenon than is a mere description of "exceedingly rare". In Baltic amber, the value of a lizard would be measured in tens of thousands of dollars. It is not that rain forests are lacking in lizards, rather, the non-existence of such specimens is associated with the fact that lizards are ostensibly too large, too strong, and perhaps too smart to get snared.

Fortunately, every two to three years, a lizard is found is the amber from the foothills of the Andes Mountains, an area that produces highly fossiliferous fossil resinite. So is the case with this specimen that measures a massive 155 by 85 mm, and has been exquisitely hand-polished. Beneficially, the specimen is thin; varying between 3 and 15 mm in thickness, a factor that endows the owner with amazing internal visibility.

The lizard measures 28 mm from tip of the head to its pelvic region, where the tail is absent, perhaps in its struggle to escape, or perhaps an injury that so weakened it, the creature could not escape the sticky sap. Our vertebrate creature shares its coffin with much fauna and flora typical with the external environment of a rain forest floor. There are more than 40 additional insect inclusions order many orders, and the unavoidable botanical material - a veritable slice of the ecosystem.

Some two dozen pictures are provided in an attempt to fairly present this astonishing amber specimen.

See the many more pictures below.