What is copal?

Copal is for the hardened resin that not yet fully polymerized and therefore not yet amber. Copal can be found worldwide with various of age. Some 'copal' are very young several decades to hundred years old only. Some copal are very old from several thousand years old to the 52 million years old.

Copal samples:

A. Recent resin (0-250 years old)

1. Colombian copal and others South American copals

2. Madagascar copal and Kenya copal

B. Ancient resin ((250-5000 years old)

1. Philippine copal

2. Beach Dammar batu (Borneo copal found on the beach)

3. Cotui copal

C. Sub-fossil resin (5000-40,000 years old)

1. Mizunami copal

2. Angola copal

3. Congo copal

4.Some Kauri gum

D. Fossil resin (40,000 and older)

1. Kauri gum

2. Zanzibar copal

3. Cambay 'amber'

4. other Japanese copal

What is amber?

Amber is fossilized tree resin, which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty many thousand years ago by human. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents. Because it originates as a soft, sticky tree resin, amber sometimes contains animal and plant material as inclusions. Amber occurring in coal seams is also called resinite (wikipedia).

The most popular amber is the Baltic amber, Dominican amber and Mexican amber. Most are suitable for jewelry and carvings. There are more than hundreds of variety and localities of amber being found recently. The most recent finding is Turkish amber-2010 and Blue amber-2011 from various Indonesian localities.

Malaysia also have amber. The biggest amber in the world was found in Merit-Pila coal mine, Sarawak, year 1991 with the size 3.5m x 1.5m. The 1991 discovery Sarawak amber from Merit-Pila coal mine was dated at Miocene, 15-17 million years old. September 2011, I received several chunks of newly discovered Sarawak amber from Tukau formation, Miri, Sarawak. It is a Pliocene age amber which is only about 5 million years old fossil resin.

What is fossils?

Fossils are the preserved remains of animals, plants and other organisms from the remote past.

Such a preserved specimen is called a "fossil" if it is older than some minimum age, most often the arbitrary date of 10,000 years ago. Hence the youngest start from Holocene through the Archean. 10,000 years to 3.4 billion years old!

Although fossils can be found worldwide, they are very difficult to be found. Some places contains abundant of fossils and some places fossils cannot be found. Malaysia also have fossils but in very little quantity and therefore, fossils here in Malaysia are EXTREMELY RARE. Almost all kind of fossils can be found here except dinosaur etc.