# Can you get DNA out of a beetle trapped in amber?

For almost 200 years, people have dug a resin millions of years old, with insects inside it, out of the hills at Colți. The short answer is no. And the amber itself hides a surprise: it is Baltic amber's cousin, changed by the mountains' heat.

By Marius Comper · September 2026 · every number comes from a published study; find them under [sources](#surse)

## A million pieces of DNA. Drag the slider back through time.

Every creature keeps its instructions in DNA. After death, the instructions break, piece by piece. Scientists measured the rate of DNA decay in ancient bones: half is lost every 521 years. Turn back time and see how many of the million pieces remain.

**Before you turn back time: after 10,612 years, how many of the million pieces remain?**
(500,000) (1,000) (Not one whole piece)
Not one whole piece. Halving every 521 years leaves a fraction of a piece after 10,612 years. And no ancient DNA was found in the real bee of that age.

The clock in brief: starting with a million pieces of DNA and halving every 521 years, this many remain:
| Years back | Pieces left |
| --- | --- |
| 0 | 1,000,000 |
| 60 | 923,278 |
| 521 | 500,000 |
| 10,612 | 0.74 — not one whole piece |
| 40,000 | 0 |
| 25,000,000 | 0 |
| 44,100,000 | 0 |
| 70,000,000 | 0 |

In 2013, a team in Manchester looked for DNA in two bees trapped in copal, a younger resin that has not fully fossilised into amber. One was under 60 years old; the other was 10,612 years old. With the best methods of the time, they found ancient DNA in neither. Their conclusion: ancient DNA is even less likely to survive in amber millions of years old. [Penney et al. 2013, PLOS ONE](https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0073150)

The 521-year decay rate was measured in 158 bones from moa, New Zealand's giant flightless birds. Nobody has measured the pace in amber, because nobody has found DNA to measure. The clock above shows what would happen if the pace were the same. [Allentoft et al. 2012](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3497090/)

## The 3.5 kilogram lump and the bee a few millimetres long

A 3.5 kilogram lump, as heavy as three and a half litres of milk, is the largest of its kind, in the words of the Buzău museum director. And the creatures in resin fit in a cube smaller than a peppercorn.

A woman from Colți found the lump in a stream bed and kept it by the door for decades, as a stop. The burglars who broke into her house stole her gold jewellery and left the lump there.

After the woman's death, a relative sold the lump to the Romanian state. Specialists in Kraków said it was true amber, 38.5–70 million years old, and the Buzău museum director believes it the largest piece of its kind. It is a national treasure today. [El País, 2024](https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-09-03/elderly-romanian-woman-used-amber-nugget-worth-over-1-million-as-a-doorstop-for-decades.html)

At the other end of the scales sit the creatures in resin. Each bee in the Manchester study fit, resin and all, in a resin cube of about 4 cubic millimetres.

## Buzău amber is Baltic amber, passed through mountains

For a century, chemists called the resin from Colți rumanite and kept it apart from Baltic amber. In 2000, three researchers showed it is the same resin, changed by heat.

**Is rumanite different from Baltic amber?**

(Yes, different) (No, the same resin)

The same resin. What sets them apart is heat, not the tree the resin flowed from. Helm had told them apart in 1891 with what was known then; the new chemistry joined them back. [Stout et al. 2000](https://doi.org/10.1007/s002690000111)

The Baltic: succinite — the mountains' heat — Colți: rumanite, succinite changed by heat

Of the whole weight of Baltic amber, between one and eight parts in a hundred are succinates; hence the name succinite. There is very little free acid, though: only 50–400 parts in a million of amber. [Wolfe et al. 2009](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2817186/)

The tree is not certain either. A team that read infrared fingerprints proposes conifers of the Sciadopityaceae family, with a living relative found today only in Japan. A Viennese chemist says naming a single tree is still a delicate matter.

Laboratories tell resins apart by their infrared fingerprint: each tree family leaves its own trace. The ROMANIT project, of Romania's National History Museum, set out between 2007 and 2010 to establish the criteria that separate Romanian amber from Baltic amber.

## 25, 44 or 70 million? The sources disagree

Three numbers circulate for the age of the amber from Colți. All come from serious sources. None is certain.

**How old is the amber from Colți?**

(25 million years) (Between 38.5 and 70 million years) (Nobody knows exactly)

Nobody knows exactly. 25 million is the geopark's number; 38.5–70 is the Kraków range, and 44 falls inside it. The upper end is almost twice the lower end. The rock it was found in is Oligocene, and the resin may be older than the rock it sits in today.

- **1578** Prince Mihnea and Lady Neaga give the church at Aluniș land where “amber shards of rare beauty” are found. The first mention.

- **1828** The first amber diggings at Colți: rough ditches, shafts and galleries.

- **1837** The Russian count Demidov writes about the amber of the Sibiciu and Bou valleys.

- **1867** Amber is Romania's symbol at the Paris World's Fair.

- **1890** Grigore Ștefănescu, the first Romanian geologist to speak of Buzău amber.

- **1891** Oscar Helm describes the resin of the Romanian Kingdom as “Rumänite”, distinct from Baltic amber.

- **1902–1937** Engineer Dumitru Grigorescu develops organised mining.

- **1924–1935** The best years: 67 to 130 kg a year, that is 804–1,560 kg in 12 years.

- **1947–1950 · 1980–1983** The last attempts at industrial mining.

- **1980** The county museum opens the exhibition with over 270 pieces at Colți.

- **2000** Stout, Beck and Anderson show rumanite is thermally altered succinite.

- **2007–2010** The ROMANIT project looks for the criteria separating Romanian from Baltic amber.

- **2013** The Manchester team finds no ancient DNA even in the 60-year resin.

- **2024** The press writes about the 3.5 kg doorstop lump; the piece is a national treasure at Buzău.

Between 1924 and 1935, Colți yielded 67 to 130 kilograms a year — 804 to 1,560 kilograms in 12 years. The mine at Kaliningrad dug 400 tonnes in 2015 alone: about 1,100 kilograms on an ordinary day, some eight times more than the best Colți year.

## Four things we do not know

Here is where what is known about the amber from Colți ends.

### How old the Colți lump is

The geopark says 25 million, Kraków 38.5–70. A published dating of the deposit itself is missing; until then, the number stays open.

### Which creatures are in rumanite

The lists online show spiders, beetles, reptiles and bird feathers, citing no paper. In Baltic amber, 98% of creatures are insects — but that is another deposit. For Colți, the catalogue is missing.

### Which tree the resin flowed from

The newest proposal says Sciadopityaceae, with a living relative found today only in Japan. Other chemists say naming a single tree is still a delicate matter.

### How laboratories tell the two ambers apart

The paper describing the infrared method could not be read for this page, with access blocked. Its conclusion — the same resin, changed by heat — comes from the 2000 paper, read through its record and the studies discussing it.

## True or false: eight questions from amber

Every answer is proven by a study. Eight out of eight makes you a museum piece.

- **Rumanite has chemically nothing to do with Baltic amber.** False. It does: it is the same resin, changed by heat. What sets them apart is heat, not the tree the resin flowed from. ([Stout et al. 2000](https://doi.org/10.1007/s002690000111))

- **No ancient DNA was found in a resin under 60 years old.** True. The young bee in copal was under 60 years old, and the best methods of 2013 found no ancient DNA in it. ([Penney et al. 2013, PLOS ONE](https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0073150))

- **In bone, DNA halves about every 521 years.** True. That is what 158 radiocarbon-dated moa bones show: 521 years for a 242-letter fragment. ([Allentoft et al. 2012](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3497090/))

- **The amber from Colți is exactly 25 million years old.** False. 25 is the geopark's number; the Kraków specialists give 38.5–70. The sources disagree with each other. ([Buzău Land Geopark; El País](https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-09-03/elderly-romanian-woman-used-amber-nugget-worth-over-1-million-as-a-doorstop-for-decades.html))

- **A 3.5 kg lump of amber spent years as a doorstop.** True. The woman from Colți had found it in a stream bed and kept it by the door. Burglars stole her gold jewellery and left it there. ([El País, 2024](https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-09-03/elderly-romanian-woman-used-amber-nugget-worth-over-1-million-as-a-doorstop-for-decades.html))

- **Amber stood for Romania in Paris, in 1867.** True. At the 1867 Paris World's Fair, amber was the country's symbol. ([Brustur et al. 2017](https://zenodo.org/records/2561003/files/02_BRUSTUR_2017_web.pdf))

- **Scientists agree which tree Baltic amber comes from.** False. Some propose conifers of the Sciadopityaceae family; a Viennese chemist says naming a single tree is still a delicate matter. ([Wolfe et al. 2009; Vávra 2009](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2817186/))

- **The creatures in the amber from Colți are listed in a published catalogue.** False. For Colți, the catalogue is missing. The lists online, with reptiles and bird feathers, cite no source. ([See the What the sources cannot say section](https://mariuscomper.uk/ambra-de-la-colti/#orb))

## Where to see the amber with your own eyes

Three stops, all in and around Buzău county.

- **The Amber Museum, Colți** The collection gathered since 1979, with over 270 rough and worked pieces, in a folk-style house. A mine dug for visitors only stands next to the museum.

- **The Buzău Amber reserve** 2.52 hectares at 500–600 metres of altitude, with the Strâmba–Comarnici perimeter and the former Strâmba mine. A protected area since 2000.

- **The Buzău County Museum** This is where the 3.5 kilogram lump is kept, a national treasure.

## How we know

We read seven studies: the 2013 paper that found no DNA in copal, the half-life measurement, the 2009 proposal about the Baltic tree, Vávra's chemistry of amber, the history of Romania's deposits and two papers about rumanite. Every number comes with its study.

The derived numbers are simple sums: the Colți–Yantarny distance from coordinates, the DNA curve from the half-life, the production totals from the yearly figures.

Two texts could not be read directly: the 2000 rumanite paper, behind a paywall, and the 2009 study on telling the ambers apart by infrared, with access blocked. We cite them only through studies discussing them.

Ages and records are told with their source beside them, and where the sources disagree, the page shows the disagreement as such.

- Penney D. et al. (2013). Absence of Ancient DNA in Sub-Fossil Insect Inclusions Preserved in ‘Anthropocene’ Colombian Copal. PLOS ONE 8(9): e73150. https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0073150 — no trace of ancient DNA in two bees in copal, one under 60 years old, one 10,612 years old.
- Allentoft M. E. et al. (2012). The half-life of DNA in bone: measuring decay kinetics in 158 dated fossils. Proc. R. Soc. B. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3497090/ — halving every 521 years, measured in moa bones.
- Wolfe A. P. et al. (2009). A new proposal concerning the botanical origin of Baltic amber. Proc. R. Soc. B. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2817186/ — the 44.1 and 47.0 million-year ages; the Sciadopityaceae proposal; 1–8% succinates.
- Vávra N. (2009). The Chemistry of Amber – Facts, Findings and Opinions. Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien 111 A. https://verlag.nhm-wien.ac.at/pdfs/111A_445474_Vavra.pdf — how resin becomes amber; the amber tree, still delicate.
- Brustur T. et al. (2017). First record of the Upper Eocene amber from central Eastern Carpathians. Geo-Eco-Marina 23. https://zenodo.org/records/2561003/files/02_BRUSTUR_2017_web.pdf — the history of Romanian amber: 1578, 1828, Helm 1891, the 1924–1935 output.
- Furholt K. et al. (2025). Prehistoric amber item at Šabalj-Nove Zemlje site. Studia Archaeologica. https://rcin.org.pl/Content/262725/299818_I.pdf — rumanite is thermally altered succinite; the difference is heat, not botanical origin.
- Stout E. C., Beck C. W., Anderson K. B. (2000). Identification of rumanite (Romanian amber) as thermally altered succinite (Baltic amber). Phys. Chem. Minerals 27: 665–678. https://doi.org/10.1007/s002690000111 — the full text sits behind a paywall; we cite its conclusion from the bibliographic record and the paper above, which discusses it.
- Natural Earth, coastlines and borders at 1:10,000,000 scale, public domain. https://www.naturalearthdata.com/ — the map with Colți and Yantarny.
- Wikipedia: the coordinates for Colți and Yantarny; the Baltic amber article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_amber — the distance between the deposits and the 35–47 ages quoted for the Baltic.
- Buzău Land UNESCO Global Geopark: red amber, rumanite. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/buzău-land-unesco-global-geopark-romania/UgXhGyclk78v7A — the deposit's age of around 25 million years.
- El País (3 September 2024). Elderly Romanian woman used amber nugget worth over $1 million as a doorstop for decades. https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-09-03/elderly-romanian-woman-used-amber-nugget-worth-over-1-million-as-a-doorstop-for-decades.html — the 3.5 kg lump, director Daniel Costache's statements, the 38.5–70 age from Kraków.
- Romanian Wikipedia: Chihlimbarul de Buzău (the reserve, the museum, the production dates). https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chihlimbarul_de_Buz%C4%83u — used only for museum and local-history facts, cross-checked where possible.