(earliest stage in the Upper Cretaceous) in age (Smiley, 
1966); only a few amber samples were found in these 
strata. More amber occurred in the Ketik beds to which 
Smiley assigns a Turonian age. These beds contain the 
earliest record of abundant and varied angiosperms and 
the dominant Ketik conifers are modern types referable 
to extant genera in such families as'Taxodiaceae (Sequoia, 
Sequoiadendron, ? Taxvodium and Juniperus), Pinaceae 
(Pinus, Picea and ? Larixv) and Taxaceae (Cephalotaxus 
and ¢ Torreya). Most of the amber occurred in associa- 
tion with the Kaolak flora which Smiley designates as 
Senonian in age. It is characterized by taxodiaceous 
conifers (Sequoia, Sequoiadendron and ? Taxodium) and 
¢ Torreya in the Taxaceae. Gray (Langenheim, ef al., 
1960) noted an abundance of conifer pollen in this flora 
with taxodiaceous pollen the dominant type. Pine and 
spruce pollen also occurred frequently, but the rarity of 
megafossils suggests that the latter conifers may have 
inhabited slopes or uplands some distance from lowland 
depositional sites. Langenheim et al. (1960) concluded 
that the source of this amber was taxodiaceous trees 
growing close to lakes, coastal swamps or other water 
bodies from the evidence: 1) the amber has always been 
found with abundant taxodiaceous remains, 2) the pina- 
ceous pollen was derived from upland sources. 
This Alaskan amber has been described neither chemi- 
cally nor physically and has not been given a mineral- 
ogical name. Some of the material is transparent, al- 
though much is opaque. The clear amber varies in color 
from light yellow to red, deep golden brown and almost 
black. The opaque material varied commonly from a 
beige to molasses color. Most of the transparent amber 
is crack-free and has a conchoidal to subconchoidal frac- 
ture, whereas the opaque amber is commonly granular. 
Langenheim et al. (1960) indicate that most clear pieces 
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