quite distant from the site of deposition. It would seem 
logical, since the primary conditions in which the amber 
was deposited were coastal or estuarine, that trees which 
grew along the rivers near the coast would have been in 
a more favorable position to contribute resin than those 
from a distant mountainous source. Also, at one locality 
at least, relatively large pieces of amber have shells of 
marine organisms (clams, snails, etc.) embedded in the 
surface, indicating that the resin was still soft when it 
entered the marine environment. This suggests either 
that the source of the resin was trees growing along the 
seashore or that the resin was transported only very short 
distances before the shells were caught in it. Likewise, 
the fact that the Chiapas amber deposits are characterized 
by relatively small, dispersed accumulations of different 
kinds of material could possibly indicate a riverside en- 
vironment with several kinds of resin producers contrib- 
uting to the sediments. This is somewhat in contrast to 
the Baltic blue earth deposits, which consist of extensive 
concentrations of pieces of relatively comparable materi- 
al, a situation suggesting that the resin was derived from 
a forest dominated by the resin producers. 
It thus appears that such trees as Hymenaea, Styrax, 
Bursera, Taxodium, etc., which occur along the rivers 
in the present-day Sabanas and Selva Alta Subcaducifolia 
near the coast, would be a more probable source than the 
upland conifers such as Pinus, Abies and Cupressus. They 
also seem more probable than such trees as Myrovylon, 
Terminalia and Protium, that occur scattered through 
the Selva Alta Perennifolia, rather than either as domi- 
nants in this forest type or as riverside inhabitants. The 
occurrence of lowland pines in the Chiapas area during 
the Oligo-Miocene, however, cannot be discounted com- 
pletely. Today in British Honduras, Pinus caribaea 
Morelet (or P. hondurensis Loock, depending upon tax- 
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