just as old but probably not as ugly
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.
You were right. It also doesn't work on things that are too young. Live clams have been dating as having been dead for years. So basically, the whole dating system is crap.
True dat.
There's a spider who builds webs in the rose bush near our front door. One day I ran outside very fast and the spider landed on me. I brushed it off. Today my wife opened the door and the spider had built its web directly in front of the front door. The fairly large spider was in the center of the web at eye level. I was about to kill it but my wife insisted that as it was outside we should let it live. I expect that it is rebuilding the web right now.
Hehehe ... but Gwen Stacy's clone lives on ...
I believe the universe was created by GOD in Six Days.
WHO knows what a day is to GOD? And maybe his last day WAS only 4004 BC (What is this BCE? leftist atheist terms?) I would say near 10,000BC by all of traceable history of man.
It is very odd that for some strange reason, a monkey became a man instantaneously by chance and was suddenly smart enough to have language and record his history.
So saith the "evolutionists" that decry the "creationists"
Moi? Like I said WHO can say how long was GOD's Day?
Happy reading, FRiend...
That's what I've read. But saying they aren't sure doesn't make headlines I suppose.
I think he probably used scientific dating techniques. Not having read the study, I have no idea which techniques he used, but if you're interested, your local university library probably subscribes to Paleontology and I'm sure the study goes over its methodology quite sufficiently.
Probably not carbon dating, but probably a wide range of other radioactive elements. You don't do dating with just one set of elements, but you use a set of elements with overlapping ranges to reduce error if one of the elements is wonky from contamination. The layer is a good visual estimate, but I believe they never trust that estimate.
"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."
No. Let's say baseline C-14 is 10,000 parts/million.
5000 parts = 5700 years
2500 parts = 11400 years
1250 parts = 22800
625 parts = 45,500
and so on.
A dinosaur that eats lawyers?
Hmmm...I'm not seeing a downside here.
What is this BCE? leftist atheist terms?
"BCE - Before the Common Era. Christians refer to it as BC: Before Christ." Non-Christians, whether "leftist" or "rightist," don't generally set their calendars by Jesus.
just as old but probably not as ugly
"the spider had built its web directly in front of the front door."
The fellow is going for the one that got away, apparently.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
LOL! ..and Scott Peterson carrying OJ's Golf bag.
LOL! Reminds me of the Far Side cartoon where the two spiders weave a web at the bottom of a child's slide. One says to the other: "If we pull this off we're gonna' eat like KINGS!"
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