this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
145 points (87.6% liked)
science
26780 readers
1139 users here now
A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.
dart board;; science bs
rule #1: be kind
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Yeah...
Insects breathe thru oxygen exchange thru skin.
You cover up all their skin in amber, they suffocate just like when a kid doesn't poke holes in a jar lid.
Because there's no oxygen, the bacteria also dies and no decay happens.
It's the same as a peat bog corpse. There's no life, it's just with the complete absence of life there's no decay. And the amber seals in moisture so there's no dessication either.
Now on the flips side:
It's not immediate. An old "jail house magic trick" is catch a live fly, put it in a bottle of water, and wait till the mark agrees it's dead. The bet/grift is you can bring it back to life.
And you can, by rolling it in salt for a few seconds, it will get up and fly away.
You have seconds to bring it back, less than a minute
Much, much shorter than 30,000,000 years, that mantis ain't coming back.
That shouldn't be up to the kid, it should be up to whoever captured the kid and put them in a jar.
This is the problem with society today...
Back in my day, we had to poke our own airholes!