Posted on 01/01/2009 9:58:11 PM PST by nickcarraway
Researchers have unravelled an ancient missing link between todays spiders and their long-extinct ancestors, and that may help explain how spiders came to weave webs. The research by scientists at the University of Kansas (KU) and Virginias Hampden-Sydney College focuses on fossil animals called Attercopus fimbriunguis. While modern spiders make silk threads with modified appendages called spinnerets, the fossil animals wove broad sheets of silk from spigots on plates attached to the underside of their bodies. Unlike spiders, they had long tails.
The research was led by Paul Selden, professor of invertebrate paleontology in the department of geology at KU, and William Shear, professor of biology at Hampden-Sydney College.
Selden and Shear discovered the fossils almost 20 years ago. At that time the specimens were thought to be the oldest spider fossils known, dating back to the Devonian Period, about 380 million years ago.
Unearthed in upstate New York, the fossils were among the first animals to live on land in North America.
New finds near the same location, in Gilboa, New York, caused the paleontologists to reinterpret their original findings. The new fossils included silk-spinning organs, called spigots, arranged on the edges of broad plates making up the undersides of the animals.
The researchers identified parts of a long, jointed tail not found in any previously known spider, but common among some of the spiders more primitive relatives, said a KU release.
We think these tailed spiders represent an entirely new kind of animal, not known before from living or fossil examples, Shear said. They were more primitive than spiders in many ways, and may be spider ancestors. Besides having tails and spinning silk from broad plates, the animals also seem to lack poison glands.
Now this is interesting...as least for those smart enough to understand the implications.
Gilboa, NY, is also the home of some of the oldest fossilized trees ever discovered, about 360 million years old (Devonian Period). I used to go camping at a grounds there in the eighties.
“[E]volution,” “missing link,” “long-extinct ancestor” openly stated... descent with modification obviously and implicitly understood... oh yeah, this could get interesting... :-)
I have seen fossilized sea creatures in the rock formations of mountains in upstate NY!
Did you drive a Monte Carlo and go with your main squeeze named Maria? ;)
Still no evolution of this multi posted article. Further consentual research is needed.
There were big chunks of Africa "stuck" in North America at the time.
No, not at that time. The collision with Africa which led to the formation of the supercontinent of Pangea (also spelled 'Pangaea') didn't come until about 250 million years ago. The formations which contained the fossils are about 380 million years old.
Below is a book I highly recommend if you want to learn about the ancient geology of New York State. You can find it at just about any of the major bookstores, and at reduced price used online at many sites.
Roadside Geology of New York
by Bradford B Van Diver
About this title: Informative travel companion about roadside terrain and geology with photos, diagrams, and glossary.
We’ve got a few of those. They’re great to take on road trips :)
Yes, they have them for quite a few different states.
Yes, there are several great locations for marine fossils in New York State. The following may take awhile to load, especially on dial up. But it is a great map of fossil locations throughout NYS. It took me a while to load it and I'm on broadband. To enlarge the map you have to click on the + sign at lower left of it.
http://people.hofstra.edu/j_b_bennington/ny_geology/rocks_fossils_NY_wide.mov
Also see:
http://people.hofstra.edu/j_b_bennington/ny_geology/index.html
One of my more awed touring experiences occurs twice-annually on the Interstates through New York and Pennsylvania. What massive shiftings of earth, water, pressure and fire are written in those sections of rock!
I appreciate very much your very complete response; however, am I not correct in saying that a long chunk of Africa remains stuck within the boundaries of North America to this day?
Perhaps what I should have written was:
...the fossils were among the first animals to live on land in North America which was originally a piece of Africa within the boundaries of North America..."
(If that is indeed true).
No, because the collision with Africa occurred some 150 million or so years *after* the time of the fossilized creatures. However, there ARE pieces of Africa (actually “pro-Africa”) stuck to portions of the east coast. In fact, one dividing line between the two great land masses lies at the approximate location of the Connecticut Valley. On one side, the original North American continent, the other old Africa.
To add, the land that the fossils are embedded in was never part of proto-Africa. The collision with Africa took place further east, and so any portions of ‘Africa’ which stuck following the eventual separation are further east.
Scientists May Have Solved the Secret of Silk
Reuters | Wed, Aug 27, 2003
Posted on 08/27/2003 11:44:51 AM PDT by presidio9
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/971500/posts
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