A Manchester scientist has found a 20-million year-old spider, perfectly preserved in a lump of amber.
University of Manchester paleontologist Dr. David Penny, who found the spider in the Dominican Republic managed to extract some of the spider's blood, which was then tested to reveal the specimen's age.
According to reports, this is the first time ancient spider blood has been found preserved in amber. The discovery has provoked speculation that it might still be possible to extract DNA from the sample.
The blood in the amber also reveals something about how the spider died, Dr. Penny says.
He says that the shape of the droplets suggests how the spider was moving when it became trapped in tree resin:
"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 said.
He speculates that the spider, a newly identified species, was running up a tree when it was hit by the resin. As it struggled to free itself from its sticky prison, several of its legs broke, Dr. Penny says.
His research is published in the current edition of Paleontology. ®
Pity this can't shut up the "Fossils were created old" Idiots
Photography Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Photography Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
They say this is the oldest spider blood that's ever been found, but what about the blood of other arthropods or small vertebrates that were caught in resin?
Quadlok wrote:
They say this is the oldest spider blood that's ever been found, but what about the blood of other arthropods or small vertebrates that were caught in resin?
[url=ttp://minerals.cr.usgs.gov/gips/na/0amber.htm]mosquito, lying trapped for 45 million years in a piece of amber, is almost perfectly preserved[/url]
Photography Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Aha! Extract spider-DNA from blood, eh? It would be interesting if they managed to clone the thing, and it turned out it was a baby-spider of an extinct, huge type of spiders that hunted pre-historic horses and spit venom. Then we can have Tertiaric ArachnoPark
"Nippon ichi, bitches! Boing-boing." Mai smote the demonic fires of heck...
Dooey Jo wrote:Aha! Extract spider-DNA from blood, eh? It would be interesting if they managed to clone the thing, and it turned out it was a baby-spider of an extinct, huge type of spiders that hunted pre-historic horses and spit venom. Then we can have Tertiaric ArachnoPark
Just go watch the movie "Eight Legged Freaks" for some good fun like that.
Praying is another way of doing nothing helpful
"Congratulations, you get a cookie. You almost got a fundamental English word correct." Pick
"Outlaw star has spaceships that punch eachother" Joviwan Read "Tales From The Crossroads"! Read "One Wrong Turn"!
Actually, it'd be pretty much impossible to know how venemous insects were back then unless you knew their prey. Since insects then eat the same thing that insects do now (aside from slight changes in the dominant species of the planet), I doubt they were any worse.
"If one needed proof that a guitar was more than wood and string, that a song was more than notes and words, and that a man could be more than a name and a few faded pictures, then Robert Johnson’s recordings were all one could ask for."
