Attenborough in Paradise and Other Personal Voyages: 1x7

Amber Time Machine

Amber washed up on the shores of the Baltic Sea was given to David when he was 12 year old. He goes there to find out what that piece of amber has to tell about life in the forest where it bled from some sort of pine tree, trapping a community of insects as it oozed down the bark. Then a trip to the Dominican Republic, where amber reveals astonishing details about life up to 150 million years ago. In addition to insects, amber traps things like lizards, tadpoles, mammal hairs and seeds. Some of the perfectly preserved creatures have been scanned, X rayed and tested for traces of DNA. The stories they tell are quite remarkable.