Amber is the fossil resin of trees with which they protect themselves against external and internal injuries. It must be at least a million years old before it is called amber. European amber comes from pines and cypresses and was formed about 55 to 30 million years ago. It is the most common of all fossil resins. Amber can also be found in many other regions of the world, where it can be up to 400 million years old.
Amber can be found on the coast, in gravel pits and mountains. It is collected, sometimes also fished or washed out. Only in East Prussia it is extracted by open-pit mining. Tiny animals or parts of plants could get stuck in the originally liquid resin and under favourable circumstances were trapped and became so-called "inclusions". We therefore know that some insect species or ferns were very similar to today's many millions of years ago.