Stories in the Amber

As with birds, no intact mammals have turned up in amber, but traces of them have. Experts were able to guess what creature left behind this tuft of hair both by examining microscopic features in the strands and by identifying two parasites—a fur mite and a fur beetle—found in the hairs. These clues led them to conclude that this tuft belonged to a rodent, possibly an extinct relative of the hutia. Hutias are small, secretive creatures still living in the Caribbean area today, millions of years after the owner of this fur perhaps brushed up against an algarrobo, entombing a swatch of its hair for eternity.