Amber is a fossilized tree resin. It was formed over millions of years. The amber originated from trees in an ancient rain forest. The tree sap (or resin) became buried and preserved. This resin was soft and tacky. Over time the resin went through a process called partial polymerization and it began to harden. After several thousand years, the tree sap turned into copal. It still wasn’t amber at this time, although some of the qualities were the same as real amber. Then, over millions of years, the volatile oils (called turpenes) that were trapped inside began to evaporate to produce amber.

Copal is much younger than amber. Some of it may even be as young as a few thousand years. Amber ranges from around 20 million years and older. Some amber from the Cretaceous period is over 100 million years old.