A friend recently told me that the mosquito encased in amber atop the cane used by John Hammond in Jurassic Park was a real mosquito encased in amber from David Attenborough's private collection (John Hammond being played by David's brother, Richard Attenborough).
It sounded like a cool fact and I wanted to substantiate it, but alas, the prop in the movie is entirely false and is made of resin and faux amber according to this website which has a listing for the prop when it was sold at auction.
In the essence of no smoke without fire, I do wonder, was the mosquito encased in amber inspired by a real artifact, perhaps held by David Attenborough? Specifically, did the props department have a particular source artifact to draw from during design which had perhaps come from David?
I asked my friend where they had heard this from and they couldn't remember, but were dissapointed that I've ruined their cool Jurassic Park fact.