Insects in amber shed light on India's past

An ant preserved in its finest detail, part of a massive find of insects in amber from the Cambay Shale in Gujarat Photograph: University of Bonn

Around 52m years ago this spider was entombed in resin oozing from a dipterocarp, a hardwood tree thought to have originated in southern Gondwana
Photograph: David Grimaldi/AMNH

The order Psocoptera was already 200m years old when this barkfly was preserved for posterity after what is now the Indian subcontinent had separated from Africa and before it crashed into the Asian landmass
Photograph: David Grimaldi/AMNH

The extraordinary anatomical detail visible in this electron micrograph of a coccid, or scaly insect, demonstrates how effectively the amber has preserved these animals Photograph: University of Bonn