by Elio — We can at­test to these truths through a lone piece of am­ber. Be­tween 50 and 35 mil­lion years ago, a spring­tail (Collem­bola) got stuck in some resin, prob­a­bly from a conifer. Be­fore it could free it­self, more resin dripped on it, even­tu­ally en­tomb­ing it com­pletely. In time, the resin be­came am­ber, but be­fore that hap­pened, a fun­gus grew...