National Museum of Scotland Presents AMAZING AMBER Exhibit

The UK's largest exhibition of amber will go on display at the National Museum of Scotland on Chambers Street, Edinburgh tomorrow.

Amazing Amber will contain over 320 objects, 75% of which have never previously been shown. Amber is fossilised tree resin and the exhibition will explore how this fascinating material was formed, how it has been used in history and how it is studied by scientists to shed new light on the earth's ancient past.

Amazing Amber coincides with the 20th anniversary of the release of the blockbuster film Jurassic Park that featured a mosquito trapped in amber from which dinosaur DNA was supposed to have been taken. The film fired the public imagination and triggered a new wave of scientific research on amber.

In recognition of the anniversary, the exhibition will display the cane, with its replica mosquito in amber that was used by Lord Richard Attenborough in Jurassic Park: The Lost World.

Amber was highly prized by our ancestors and objects on display range from ancient and contemporary jewellery, religious and decorative items to 130 fascinating inclusions created when sticky tree resin captured insects and other organic material. This resulted in a natural time capsule containing life forms dating back millions of years. Inclusions on show include flies, beetles, bugs and spider's webs as well as a 99 million year-old biting midge that dates from the time of the dinosaurs.

Dr Andrew Ross, Principal Curator of Palaeobiology, National Museums Scotland said:

"Amber has fascinated mankind for thousands of years, both with its beauty and the three dimensional life forms captured inside many of the pieces which tell us so much about our earth's incredible history. We believe that Amazing Amber will delight and inform our visitors about this much-prized natural time capsule."

The exhibition will display a new species of earwig recently identified by Amazing Amber curator, Dr Andrew Ross and due to be named after Bill Crighton, a volunteer photographer with National Museums Scotland following the publication of a forthcoming scientific paper. Also on show will be The Piltdown Fly, an object owned by the Natural History Museum and believed to be a genuine amber inclusion dating back millions of years until it was discovered to be a fake by Dr Ross in 1993.

Other highlights include beautiful 17th century Italian altarpieces, the world's largest piece of Burmese amber and examples of carved Chinese and Mexican amber, as well as amber-handled cutlery reputedly used by Sir Walter Scott. Amazing Amber also features ancient examples of amber used in folklore to ward off evil spirits, cure blindness and purify water.

Amazing Amber is made up of objects from the National Museums Scotland collections as well as loans from museums and private collectors including the Natural History Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Sir Walter Scott's Abbotsford home, Universal Studios and the private collection of Sir David Attenborough.

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