The
tiny tangled threads of the world's oldest spider web have
been found encased in a prehistoric piece of amber, a
British scientist said.
Oxford University
paleobiologist Martin Brasier said the 140-million-year-old
webbing provides evidence that arachnids had been ensnaring
their prey in silky nets since the dinosaur age.
He
also said the strands were linked to each other in the
roughly circular pattern familiar to gardeners the world
over.
"You can match the details of the spider's web
with the spider's web in my garden," Brasier said.
The web was found in a small piece of amber picked up by
an amateur fossil-hunter scouring the beaches on England's
south coast about two years ago, Brasier said.
A
microscope revealed the existence of tiny threads about 1
millimeter (1/20th of an inch) long amid bits of burnt sap
and fossilized vegetable matter.
While not as
dramatic as a fully preserved net of spider silk, the
minuscule strands show that spiders had been spinning
circle-shaped webs well into prehistory, according to Simon
Braddy, a University of Bristol paleobiologist uninvolved
with the find.
Source:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,467245,00.html
