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.
"So, this old boy was down to his last 1.5 PPM, eh?"
1. I have no idea what the real C-14 baseline is; chart for example only to respond to the "don't work after 1 halflife" argument".
2. I understand the C-14 dating to have decreasing confidence relatively quickly (100 or so thousand years), so I would think C-14 was not the method used.
3. There are other radioactive-decay dating methods with other elements that reach farther back (that cost more $$$ to run) --- no idea what method was used here.
4. I would assume (without knowledge) that (if this scientist is not a reckless idiot, which is possible) 3 or 4 methods are used at the same time to see if they corrollate, as any one does not necessarily give you a lot of confidence. For example --- strata, radioactive dating, similar items with known date ranges found locally, etc. If all combine to give same date range, you have a pretty good idea of date.
Of course not. I was being facetious.
Jesus was known as "Jesus, The Christ" to be most accurate.
You do not have to choose to believe it, but it is still fact that the nomenclature for marking years in the western world for 2 thousand years was Anno Dommini (A.D.) "Year of God" that began with the birth of Jesus of Nazareth - the Christ. and marking years before that was called BC Before Christ.
That is HISTORICAL FACT - or are you in favor of the communist ideologies of erasing and revising of history?
Maybe you only have problems with titles? Do you also have problems with the title: Mister, Sir, President, etc?
"The Christ" is Jesus' Title. No?
Pinging a professional.
OK, we know the truth about what happened to this spider 20 million years ago... Bush's fault!
"The Christ" is Jesus' Title. No?
Are you trying to start a religious argument here? "Christ" (a Greek translation of the Hebrew "Moshiach," or messiah, literally meaning "anointed") is Jesus's "title" only according to Christians; Jews, as you surely know, don't regard him as the messiah. Now that you know what BCE means, why don't you stop trying to pick a fight about it (in a thread that's not even about religion in the first place)?
That particular calendar only became widespread in Europe around the year 800.
What would happen if there is viruses in the spider's blood that hasn't been around for centuries. Maybe a virus that is a killer of humans today.
Only if you accept that he was the Messiah. I, like many people out there, don't. Sorry. I have no problem with the Gregorian calendar, but I'm not going to throw away my religious beliefs either. If you don't like it, that's just too bad.
OK that beats my 30 yr old Fiat Spider ...
Most likely not. Carbon-14 goes back only about 50,000 years.
...and Tasty, too !
The upper limit is on the order of 50,000 years.
LOL. Yep ....it is an illusion. The spider is actually 6000 yrs old ....but 'appears' to be older.
Enough of the public debate that will never end --- fun for mental exercise though.
But one last question and I'll stop since it is never ending it seems ...
Riddle me this ... IF it is, as you say, in deference to the Judeo non-believers that it is called Common Era --- than WHY did they change Anno Domini (AD) since it only translates to "Year of God" ?
The Jews have their own historical calendar also! Same with Indians, muslims, chinese etc. DO you see the communists demanding THEY drop their references, religion and history?
Only the Christina United States of America and other WESTERN Christina based countries are being FORCED to revise their histories.
Interesting.
No they haven't.
Those are interpretations of fossils found. If it was so definite, we wouldn't have these threads. But you know that.
Well here in South Florida, roaches are a daily annoyance, but Dinosaurs would eat all of the tourists (In that case, the movie ends up really bad for the humans)
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