Researchers have identified three fossil insects, including a well-preserved extinct ant, inside pieces of 40-million-year-old amber once owned by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The specimens come from his collection of Baltic amber now held at the Goethe National Museum in Weimar.
The amber pieces, never polished and thus difficult to examine by eye, were studied using synchrotron micro computed tomography at the German Electron Synchrotron in Hamburg. This produced detailed three-dimensional images of a fungus gnat, a black fly and the ant species †Ctenobethylus goepperti. Bernhard Bock of the University of Jena noted that the ant's exceptional preservation allowed researchers to document fine body hairs and internal skeletal structures in the head and thorax for the first time. A full digital reconstruction of the specimen has been made available online for other scientists. Comparisons with living ants of the genus Liometopum suggest the extinct species likely built large nests in trees. Goethe himself showed limited interest in the fossils, mainly using the resin to grind lenses for his studies of color. The work, published in Scientific Reports, demonstrates how historical museum collections can still yield new scientific insights with modern methods.