Stories in the Amber

This extinct mushroom is the only known fossil tropical mushroom ever found. One of the smallest members of the so-called inky cap family, this specimen likely grew on the bark of the algarrobo tree with others of its kind. When the cinnamon-colored mushroom was overrun by a glob of resin, a tiny mite grazing on its cap was entombed forever in the very act of dining (see mite lower right).