Posted on 09/30/2005 9:17:27 AM PDT by bigmac0707
A scientist has described a spider that was trapped and preserved in amber 20 million years ago.
Palaeontologist Dr David Penney, of the University of Manchester, found the 4cm long by 2cm wide fossil during a visit to a museum in the Dominican Republic.
Since the discovery two years ago, he has used droplets of blood in the amber to reveal the age of the specimen.
It is thought to be the first time spider blood has been found in amber and scientists hope to extract its DNA.
Dr Penney, of the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, said he had used the blood droplets to trace how, when and where the spider died.
It is a new species from the Filistatidae family commonly found in South America and the Caribbean.
Dr Penney believes it was climbing up a tree 20 million years ago when it was hit on the head by fast flowing resin, became engulfed in the resin and died.
He claims the shape and position of the blood droplets revealed which direction the spider was travelling in and which of its legs broke first.
"It's amazing to think that a single piece of amber with a single spider in it can open up a window into what was going on 20 million years ago," he said.
"By analysing the position of the spider's body in relation to the droplets of blood in the amber we are able to determine how it died, which direction it was travelling in and even how fast it was moving."
He first saw the fossil during a visit to the Museo del Ambar Dominicano, in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.
Dr Penney reports his findings in the latest issue of the journal Palaeontology.
>I will use the Gregorian calendar, but I will not refer to Jesus as "Christ". You have a choice: BCE or BJ (before Jesus).
Sorry, no, the BJ era started in 1992.
If they just eat the tourists, that may be a good thing. I say that as a former Floridian.
How do you figure that? Half life doesn't mean that half decays in 5700 years and the other half decays in the next 5700 years. If means that half of what's left decays in the next 5700 years.
So, if half of the carbon 14 has decayed to nitrogen 14, then it's 5700 years old. If 3/4 has decayed, then it's 11,400 years old. If 7/8 has decayed, then it's 16,100. So half of a half of a half.... eventually it gets too small to measure, but not at 11,400. It's more like 50,000 years, I think.
> If it was so definite, we wouldn't have these threads.
Hogwash. There will always be Holocaust deniers, flat-earthers, UFO "abductees" and Creationists.
I've read about the discovery of 240 million year old bacteria trapped within a salt crystal...I don't remember if they got DNA or not.
Funny - the name-calling continues.
Because Anno Domini doesn't mean the Year of God, it means "Year of our God" (go study your latin declensions), which, dating from the year one, indicates Jesus is "our God." Jesus is not my God.
The Jews have their own historical calendar also!
However lunar calendars are stupid, and it makes no sense practically to use a different dating convention from the rest of the world. If I were to refer to today as 26th Elul, 5765, few here would understand what I'm talking about.
Only the Christina United States of America and other WESTERN Christina based countries are being FORCED to revise their histories.
I'm not trying to force you to do anything. What are you talking about? You want to use B.C., be my guest. You're trying to force me to say BC, and I won't.
It is a good way to catch a bug, though. ><
That's a circular argument if ever I saw one. Creationist non-acceptance of scientific evidence is justified because creationists don't accept scientific evidence...
Are you really saying all scientists (including biologists) accept the TOE? Is that what you are saying? Or do you admit there is disagreement in the scientific community as to evolution?
I would sooner become a Hamas suicide bomber than start dating events from the start of the Clinton presidency. However, I would not be surprised if you found a DUer who did.
Science accepts the TOE, yes. You said that no transitional fossils had been found, which was a bald faced lie, and I gave you a list of counter examples. If your response isn't to admit your error but instead to rely on some appeal to authority by finding some biologist somewhere who refuses to accept the evidence, then your debating technique needs some serious work.
Truly, the arachnid has been touched by His noodly appendage.
OTOH, this spider's descendents must have forgotten to evolve. The 20 million year old spider looks like the ones I see in my kitchen today.
Hey! This guy missed the ark, but I guess Noah didn't go to the Dominican Republic!
Looks just like the ones I crush on my back yard when they get annoying to me.
It is apparently the evolutionists' arguments which need serious work so since few people actually believe it. And once the schools throw in the ID, even fewer will believe it.
Right, because if/when the schools teach ID there will be no science curriculum.
i would have figured it was moving a 10 m/s/s. (rate of acceleration of a falling object :)
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