A Fossilized Scene of a Spider Attacking a Wasp, Preserved for 110 Million Years

IO9 ^ | October 9, 2012 | George Dvorsky

[DogByte6RER]

Prehistoric insects trapped in amber for millions and millions of years ... I think I see where this is all going.

[Williams]

What’s the resin for this post?

[DManA]

Pyrrhic victory imortalized in amber.

[DogByte6RER]

Some related background/reference material ...

Predatory behaviour of the social orb-weaver spider, Geratonephila burmanica n. gen., n. sp. (Araneae: Nephilidae) with its wasp prey, Cascoscelio incassus n. gen., n. sp. (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae) in Early Cretaceous Burmese amber

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08912963.2011.640399

[Pharmboy]

The resin is clear.

[holden]

What’s the resin for this post?

Moreover, why was there no amber alert?

HF

[Doctor 2Brains]

for later

[Eric in the Ozarks]

My, my my,
said the spider to the fly...

[Slump Tester]

"But as for catching unsuspecting prey in a web, that appears to be an evolutionary strategy that has survived the test of time."

Spiders catching their food in their web is "evolutionary"! Who knew?

[G Larry]

Poor spiders and wasps....

Doest this mean that after 110 Million years, they haven’t evolved into anything else.

(No! Not the fossilized ones, but the decendents of their siblings!)

Guess they’ve been perfect for a long time?

[JoeProBono]

[OldNavyVet]

Researchers date the scene to the Early Cretaceous between 97 to 110 million years ago in the Hukawng Valley of Myanmar

But ... But ... Darwin's theory on evolution is hogwash!

Just kidding. Darwin's theory is now proven to a degree that few question it.

[holden]

Are you fleeing from the fact that the victim of this age-long assault was a WASP and condemned by no for one for over a hundred million years--so what's new? I speak on behalf of hundreds of millions of WASPs, that rarely--if ever--see political correctness going in their favor!

...had it coming, indeed!

HF

[EggsAckley]

ouch

[Ken H]

Are you kidding? This story has legs.

[TigersEye]

But just before the spider was about to have its meal, a drop of resin flowed down from above, freezing the moment in time.

That must have been a really big drop of resin.

[JustSayNoToNannies]

Researchers date the scene to the Early Cretaceous between 97 to 110 million years ago in the Hukawng Valley of Myanmar

But ... But ... Darwin's theory on evolution is hogwash!

Just kidding. Darwin's theory is now proven to a degree that few question it.

Erm - this article has squat to do with evolution. Maybe learn to recognize what evolution is and isn't before pontificating about degrees of provenness.

[Our man in washington]

Talk about a slow web connection.

[rmlew]

Female parasitoid Wasps sting and incapacitate spiders and lay eggs on them. The wasp larva then eat the spiders alive. In this case, the turnabout was fair play.