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.
Yes they are. Just because you believe them doesn't make them true. There is quite a bit of disagreement regarding dating.
I'd rather have t-rex running around than this spider.
You can see t-rex, you can shoot t-rex. Dealing with a spider infestation could be very difficult.
Which is easier to exterminate, a dinosaur colony or roaches ?
Yikes.
Fortunately, I only have to deal with field spiders and the occasional wolf spider. When I first moved to California, I had to contend with a massive infestation of Black Widow spiders in the garage. That was incredibly unnerving for me at the time...
Well, we still have roaches but I haven't seen any dinosaurs in awhile.
That's why I said coupled with at what level in the strata the amber was discovered.
And how would they determine how old the strata was?
As I understand it, C-14 half life is about 5,700 yrs. It seems that that would make it impossible to date something over 11,400 yrs old using this method.
I've no reason to doubt that it is 20 mil years old, give or take, but I'm not sure how they would have determined that number.
LOL! ...What do you think it was running from? ...HELEN. :D
Peter Parker did well with a radioactive spider, didn't go so well for Gwen Stacy, however...
(darn, I'm old...)
Anyway, this one appears to have an even closer living relative in South America, by the name of Misionella mendensis, but I can't find any pics at the moment.
OJ says spider may prove to have been Nicole's real killer.
LOL!
That is, as long as the 8 minature spider gloves fit.
A little more science and evolution than ecological but thought it was interesting! He first saw the fossil during a visit to the Museo del Ambar Dominicano
Hmmm, they call that a fossil eh?
"It doesn't say which dating methods were used here, only that the date was determined by extracting blood-- and I'm not sure how one would date something based on organic materials. Unless the spider was radioactive of course. (In that case, the movie ends up really bad for the humans)"
The article failed to mention the "Born on date" found in the spider's wallet.
Hey? (holding up my hand and waving) I can answer that question and you don't even have to pay me a ridiculous amount of money to do so.
The spider was moving very Sloooooooooooooooowly with all of that sticky goo on him. How's that...and it's free!
The organic materials would contain C-14 (radioactive carbon, which decays at a set rate and, mildly more controversely, is believed to exist at a set baseline % of total carbon at a given time).
Assuming one does not eat after death, the shortfall of the baseline % tells you how old something organic was when it stopped eating (e.g., died).
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