Amber-Trapped Spider Web Too Old for Evolution

ICR News ^ | November 20, 2009 | Brian Thomas, M.S.

[GodGunsGuts]

Amateur fossil hunters Jamie and Jonathan Hiscocks were looking for dinosaur remains in East Sussex, UK, when they instead found tiny spider webs trapped inside a piece of ancient amber. Oxford University paleobiologist Martin Brasier inspected the amber, which was assigned an age of over 100 million years. He concluded that spiders back then were able to spin webs just like today’s garden spiders.

The amber-encased webbing formed concentric circles like those that contemporary orb-weaver spiders manufacture. Also evident were “little sticky droplets along the web threads to trap prey,” Brasier told the Daily Mail. He added, “You can match the details of the spider's web with the spider's web in my garden.”¹ In a paper recently published in the Journal of the Geological Society, he wrote that these webs are “comparable with those of araneoid spider webs studied by us in modern cherry tree resins.”²

Brasier and his colleagues suggested that this “amber was arguably deposited shortly before the emergence of the earliest flowering plant communities circa 140 million years before present.”² The Daily Mail reported, “The discovery suggests that orb-shaped web spinning spiders existed far earlier than had been previously thought, at a time before flowering plants appeared on the planet and triggered an explosion in flying insects.”¹

This is a reversal of the standard story of spider evolution, which was based on spider fossils from Florissant lake deposits and Baltic amber. Paleobiologist Donald Prothero wrote in 2004, “From these deposits, it is apparent that carnivorous, web-spinning spiders had radiated since the late Mesozoic, probably in response to the explosion of insect diversity in response to the diversification of flowering plants.”³ Florissant insect fossils are considered to be 35 million years old , and the oldest Baltic amber is considered to be about 40 million years old. Thus, by evolutionary reckoning, the new UK amber shows that spiders were around 100 million years earlier than previously thought.

So, did orb-weaving spiders evolve in response to a greater diversity of insects―which supposedly evolved in response to plants―or did the spiders evolve prior to these insects?

If the evolutionary age-deposit correlation is made, this amber-encased spider web not only falsifies the theory that spiders “radiated” in response to the “explosion” of insects, but it also glosses over the fact of the interdependence of these three groups—spiders, insects, and flowering plants—in ecosystems. Most orb-weavers depend entirely on flying insects for food, insects are responsible for pollinating most flowering plants, and the plants provide the necessary food for most insects.

For Brasier and his colleagues to maintain that even a single generation of these spiders evolved prior to insects, they must also insist that spiders came up with silk glands, spinnerettes, and the instincts required to build symmetrical webs even to the degree of coating them with sticky insect-trapping droplets—all with no flying insects around to trap as prey. With no lunch as a payoff, wouldn't that generation of spiders have gone extinct?

However, if the contradictory web of long-age assignments could be decoupled from rock layers, as the Flood model maintains, then the spider conundrum vanishes. Spider, insect, and flowering plant fossils are near the top layers of Flood-year strata not because they evolved in later eras, but because they were part of mid-continental ecosystems that were the last areas to be inundated by the Flood.⁴

Genesis is correct that spiders, insects, and flowering plants have always existed in interdependent ecosystems from the beginning.

References

1. Creepy crawlies from the dawn of time: Newly-discovered prehistoric spider’s web is world’s oldest. Daily Mail. Posted on dailymail.co.uk November 1, 2009, accessed November 3, 2009.
2. Brasier, M., L. Cotton and I. Yenney. 2009. First report of amber with spider webs and microbial inclusions from the earliest Cretaceous (c. 140 Ma) of Hastings, Sussex. Journal of the Geological Society. 166 (6): 989-997.
3. Prothero, D. 2004. Bringing Fossils to Life: An Introduction to Paleobiology, 2nd ed. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 266.
4. Wise, K. 2003. The Pre-Flood Floating Forest: A Study in Paleontological Pattern Recognition. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Creationism. Pittsburgh, PA: Creation Science Fellowship, 371-381.

[urroner]

Hmm, let’s see. The scientists and evos have to prove everything they believe and if there is the slightes hole or minutest inconsistency in anything they say, they are wrong and they’re going to hell.

The creationists don’t have to prove anything they believe and if there is a gaping hole or an glaring inconsistency in anything they say, they are still right and they’re going to heaven.

Do I have it right or am I wrong somewhere?

[urroner]

Hmm, let’s see. The scientists and evos have to prove everything they believe and if there is the slightes hole or minutest inconsistency in anything they say, they are wrong and they’re going to hell.

The creationists don’t have to prove anything they believe and if there is a gaping hole or an glaring inconsistency in anything they say, they are still right and they’re going to heaven.

Do I have it right or am I wrong somewhere?

[CottShop]

[[Hmm, let’s see. The scientists and evos have to prove everything they believe and if there is the slightes hole or minutest inconsistency in anything they say, they are wrong and they’re going to hell.]]

No -those that reject God and haven’t accepted Christ will go to hell whether they beleive in evolution or not- the bible is pretty clear about htis- As to the ‘slightest hole’ or ‘minutest inconsistency’- the hwoppers being told by TOE advocates are a bit more than ‘slight and minute’ in many cases

[[The creationists don’t have to prove anything they believe]]

Oh but we do present ample enough evidence to present strong beyond reasonable doubt cases supporting our positions- FR has many such threads

[[if there is a gaping hole or an glaring inconsistency in anything they say,]]

‘Gaping holes’? ‘Glaring inconsitencies’? Care to point htwese out?

[[they are still right and they’re going to heaven.]]

If they have accepted Christ as Savior, then yes, they are goign to heaven- the bible is very clear about htis too.

[demshateGod]

I don’t know if “you’re wrong” would be the right words to say in response. It doesn’t seem you have the resources to come up with any other interpretation of what I said. Nothing you said shows you have the ability....no, that’s not it..... the needed amount of deference to debate this issue. Nor enough deference to truly see your position before a holy God. Maybe you do, but it’s not displayed here.

[GodGunsGuts]

“The discovery suggests that orb-shaped web spinning spiders existed far earlier than had been previously thought, at a time before flowering plants appeared on the planet and triggered an explosion in flying insects.”

Kind of a waste of time to set up a net and wait for insects before insects became a plentiful dinner item, don't you think?

[Scythian]

You can lead a spider to 100 million years but you cannot make it evolve ...

And to think I am mocked for being a young earther ...

[Ha Ha Thats Very Logical]

Brian, as usual, leaves out some inconvenient facts and blurs a bunch of others. He would have us believe, first of all, that "radiated" is the same thing as "evolved." The idea that spiders "spread into new habitats and thereby diverged or diversified" (the definition of "radiate" in ecology) is hardly contradicted by the discovery that spiders were around long before that radiation happened. Calling the new discovery a "reversal" of the radiation theory is therefore a mischaracterization.

Then he writes, "For Brasier and his colleagues to maintain that even a single generation of these spiders evolved prior to insects..." But Brasier gave the web an age of 140 million years, and "the oldest identifiable insect fossil is a 390-million year old bristletail." And "the oldest known fossils of winged insects are about 320 million years old." Brasier's even quoted in the story Brian footnotes, saying "it was at this time [the time the web was made] flies, butterflies and moths were beginning to evolve!" So the idea that Brasier said the spiders evolved before insects is just something Brian made up.

So Brian's question, "With no lunch as a payoff, wouldn't that generation of spiders have gone extinct?" is based on a false premise: there was plenty of lunch around.

I stayed out of the "are creationists liars?" thread. But this one certainly is, unless you think Brian just doesn't understand what he reads. His patterns of distortion and deception are too consistent for me to believe that, though. He's a very good propagandist.

[GodGunsGuts]

See #25.

[AZ .44 MAG]

I heard you were dead a few days ago.

I’m very glad to see that the rumors of your death were greatly exaggerated.

[metmom]

Called it.....

[ElectricStrawberry]

BTMS* strikes again......Earth to BTMS*, you can dupe some with your nonsense, but flying insects were around LOOOOOOOOOONG BEFORE 140 million years ago, so your argument that the spider spinning webs for no flying insects is as asinine as it is irrelevant nonsense designed to dupe the flock.

Spider, insect, and flowering plant fossils are near the top layers of Flood-year strata not because they evolved in later eras, but because they were part of mid-continental ecosystems that were the last areas to be inundated by the Flood.

Hadn't heard that knee-slapper before. Now the flowering plants were in the continent interiors....because plants would never grow near the ocean. DO TELL, BTMS*, why are there flying insect fossils in the 300 million years ago strata?

[CottShop]

[[I heard you were dead a few days ago.

I’m very glad to see that the rumors of your death were greatly exaggerated.]]

Err? I think somethign got mixed up in translation- I was in a thread abotu hte swine flu, and had said that with my asthma, I’m probably goign to have a difficult time with hte flu (I haven’t got hte swien flu yet, but it’s goign aroudn town right now, and I NEVER escape gettign flus unfortuinately- if a town 100 miles away gets the flu- I’ll get it soemhow lol)

[[I heard you were dead a few days ago.]]

I do however sleep on my left side because I read somewhere that doing so wears the heart out faster lol

[[I’m very glad to see that the rumors of your death were greatly exaggerated.]]]]

Thanks- I’m doing well so far- Tryign to stay out of public till this flu runs it’s course in town- We can’t get the swine flu shot as it’s simpyl not available, so I’m tryign to avoid gettign it best I can

[ElectricStrawberry]

Shhhhhh....they have a false argument to kick around.
....never you mind all other flying insects....they are irrelevant to the bogus argument.

[Ha Ha Thats Very Logical]

See #25.

What about #25? You mean where you falsely imply that there were no insects around to eat before the "explosion in flying insects" referred to? So there were fewer insects--that just means there were fewer spiders, not that there were none. The idea that populations of prey and predator rise and fall together is hardly new.

[AZ .44 MAG]

Check your FR mail.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[CottShop]

will do- nothign there yet, but wil lcheck agaion tonight as I have to leave for a bit- I’m gonna dress up in brown pants, brown shirt, tuck a white hankerchief in my back pocket, and go leaping through the woods making gruntign sounds while pawing hte ground (life is pretty boring in my neck of hte woods- gotta do thigns to make it more itneresting- nothign like dodging bullets durign hunting season to give the heart a jumpstart lol)

[AZ .44 MAG]

The brown shirt would help you fit in at the White Hut too.

[jagusafr]

And to you for yours. And the eagles just give me the opportunity to flash my alpha at a higher level. Have a blessed Thanksgiving.

Colonel, USAFR

[stormer]

As was pointed out earlier, not all flying insects require flowering plants, and a great many insects that cannot fly, jump. Orb weavers would have an advantage in capturing jumping insects.