Violent conflict in Myanmar linked to boom in fossil amber research, study claims

For the past decade, paleontologists have increasingly been using a unique window to peer into the past: amber—blobs of hardened tree resin—that preserves in exquisite detail insects, plants, tiny lizards, and bits of larger organisms, such as the feathered tail from a dinosaur.

Recent papers have analyzed samples taken from one of the world’s richest amber deposits, dating to 99 million years ago during the height of the Cretaceous and located in what is today Myanmar. But that country is riven by political conflict. Now, a new study suggests paleontological research has directly benefited from the conflict in Myanmar, which has created opportunities for ethically questionable mining, trade, and collecting practices.

Almost all recently studied Myanmar amber can be linked to the nation’s discord, with outside paleontologists taking advantage of the political upheaval, the new paper claims. “This became the region of conflict, which is directly related to amber,” says co-author Nussaïbah Raja Schoob, a paleobiologist at the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU). She hopes the paper will force paleontologists to reconsider how they work. The paper adds that almost all publications lack researchers from Myanmar itself, possibly because the few paleontologists there haven’t been able to study exported specimens.

The study “is thorough, well done, accurate, and needed,” says David Grimaldi, curator of the amber collection at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, who says he stopped working on Myanmar amber in 2017. But other researchers see flaws in its analysis.

There’s broad agreement that Myanmar amber is a precious scientific resource. Fossils inside amber preserve fine details and soft tissue as if ancient organisms are frozen in time. And the Myanmar amber deposits go all the way back to the Cretaceous. “From all the deposits we know across the world, this is the one that preserves pieces of dinosaur habitat,” says study co-author Emma Dunne, a paleontologist at FAU.

But the journey of a piece of amber from the ground to a starring role in a scientific paper is fraught with ethical conflict, as many paleontologists have noted. Most Myanmar amber mines are in the northern state of Kachin, where the Kachin Independence Army and the Myanmar government military have been battling in armed conflict since the 1960s. Both sides have benefited from the amber trade, which is estimated at $1 billion a year by the Kachin Development Networking Group. In 2017, the Myanmar military took control of the mines. In 2019, a United Nations Human Rights Council fact-finding mission found the military guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Conflict rages around amber mines

Areas of conflict are rife in the Kachin region of Myanmar. Many amber mines are located in the Hukawng Valley, close to the city of Tanai. Amber is then transported to trade centers in Myitkyina, or to Tengchong in China, where collectors and paleontologists buy the rarest pieces.

map of amber trade
E. Dunne et al., Comm. Bio., (2022); Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project

Most amber from Kachin is transported to the Chinese border town of Tengchong, although some is also sold in Myanmar at the Myitkyina Gems and Jewelry Trade Center. Some pieces are sold as jewelry in bustling markets; pieces containing fossils are sold in those same markets to private collectors or paleontologists. Rare pieces that preserve bits of vertebrates may go for up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Myanmar prohibited the permanent transport of fossil material out of the country in 2015. But amber falls in a legal gray zone, as it is also considered a gemstone that can be legally exported.

Because of these ethical complications, raised by a Science exposé in 2019, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) released a letter on 21 April 2020 calling for a moratorium on publishing studies of Myanmar amber obtained after the military took over the mines in 2017. But few journals changed their policies. Last year, SVP sent journal editors a second letter calling for a moratorium on publishing papers describing fossil material in Myanmar amber obtained after a 2021 military coup. It also released guidelines on conducting research with amber acquired before this date.

In the new paper, researchers led by Dunne and Raja Schoob tracked the amber publication record and note how it has moved in tandem with political and other events. Using specific keywords and categories related to paleontology in the Web of Science, the team analyzed 937 publications on Myanmar amber and 55 “control” publications that used nonamber paleontological material from Myanmar, such as Cenozoic mammals and petrified wood. They then calculated publication trends for amber and nonamber papers.

Before 2014, the number of amber publications rose slowly and steadily. But that year, it started to explode, and has since grown exponentially, the team reports today in Communications Biology. 

 

 

number of publications about Myanmar amber
E. Dunne et al.; Comm. Bio. (2022); Web of Science

The team also found a shift in the top countries publishing amber papers. Before 2014, the United States dominated, with 69 Myanmar amber papers. After that year, China quickly rose to the top, with 417 papers. “China has been sort of a juggernaut for the study of Burmese amber,” Grimaldi says. “They were monopolizing the commercial market.”

The researchers argue the dramatic rise in Myanmar amber research can be explicitly linked to political, legal, and economic changes. Around 2010, China tapped out its amber mines, whereas amber from neighboring Myanmar was ever-more-accessible in the Tengchong markets, Raja Schoob says. That’s why China has become the biggest producer of papers, she says. “It really explained a lot about how we got to where we are,” Dunne adds. “A country—China—with so many resources and so much access … has driven so much interest.”

But other researchers say the boom in amber research simply reflects academic interest. Shuo Wang, a paleontologist at the Qingdao University of Science and Technology, calls the new paper “very comprehensive.” But, she says, “There are several exaggerations and some mistakes.” She argues the 2014 boom was due to interest from a group of palaeoentomology researchers from China, who were inspired by a 2013 conference. And she notes that in 2015 the journal Cretaceous Research put out a special issue on Myanmar amber, boosting the number of papers.

Dunne agrees those factors could be contributing to the rise in amber publications. But, she says, “I highly doubt that scientific interest alone led to the massive increase in research output.” The authors note in the paper that the amber trade with China gained momentum in the early 2010s, with more becoming available. “The accessibility of these specimens is key,” Dunne says.

Wang agrees that for ethical reasons, paleontologists should restrict access to new amber. But she thinks scientists should be able to study materials obtained in the past, even if they lack documents establishing provenance. The Fushun Amber Institute, for example, has been collecting Myanmar amber since the beginning of the 2000s, and has many specimens still to be studied. “It is impossible to provide purchase records and import and export certificates as required by SVP, because amber has been transferred many times before it entered the hands of scientists,” she says. “If these specimens do not enter the hands of researchers, or the papers cannot be published due to ethical issues, it will be a huge loss. … There will be a lot of secrets [that] remain buried with the amber.”

Whereas some journals have quietly stopped accepting papers on Myanmar amber, others have openly discussed the ethical and legal issues. “We’ve come to a reckoning point in paleontology—across all its fields, not just Burmese amber—but this is really showing us that it’s time to maybe take a step up with policy,” says Luíseach Nic Eoin, a senior editor at Nature Ecology & Evolution. Last year, Nature Portfolio revised its policies to curb so-called parachute science, which involves foreign scientists working in other nations with little local involvement, and to make sure materials were collected legally.

The new paper also looked at authorship. The authors found that only three of 872 amber publications included co-authors from Myanmar. They conclude that parachute science is pervasive. Ironically, “For Myanmar researchers, it’s very difficult to access the Myanmar amber mines,” says co-author Zin-Maung-Maung-Thein, a paleontologist at the University of Mandalay. As a result, he says, Myanmar paleontologists have little expertise in working with amber, complicating equitable collaborations. But he thinks Myanmar amber should continue to be studied, and suggests foreign researchers contact Myanmar embassies for proper paperwork. “It will probably take time … but it’s a win-win situation.” To foster equitable collaborations, he adds, “The country with the expertise should invite the Myanmar scientists [to their institutions with] some kind of scholarships.”

Wang agrees that buying specimens in markets isn’t ideal. She and other groups have teamed up with researchers in Myanmar to request permission to do fieldwork in the mines, but so far, the government has denied permits.

For Margaret Lewis, a vertebrate paleontologist at Stockton University and current vice president of SVP, the controversy over Myanmar amber has galvanized efforts to rethink ethical standards. “This is one of the times,” she says, “where what we do has a fundamental impact on the world.”

source: sciencemag.org