Many of us think we know what amber is, but do we truly? The movie Jurassic Park brought it to our attention - brought it to life, in fact, but it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction. Amber and copal belong to a category of gemstones known as the organic gems. Organic gems are those that were not formed by geological forces, but rather by those of living organisms. The best known organic gem is pearl, but coral, horn, tortoise shell, ivory and many others fall into this category too. Amber and copal are sometimes called natural resins because they form from the resins secreted by plants and trees. Pine sap is a commonly known plant resin, but pine trees are not the source of either amber or copal. Baltic amber originated from a plant that was a distant and ancient relative of the modern pine tree.
