[quote]
[B]Researchers have found what they say is the only fossil ever discovered of a spider attack on prey caught in its web -- a 100 million-year-old snapshot of an engagement frozen in time.[/B]
[quote]
[IMG]http://images.sciencedaily.com/2012/10/121008134523-large.jpg?1349725738[/IMG]
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Ancient spider attack. This is the only fossil ever discovered that shows a spider attacking prey in its web. Preserved in amber, it's about 100 million years old. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Oregon State University)
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The extraordinarily rare fossils are in a piece of amber that preserved this event in remarkable detail, an action that took place in the Hukawng Valley of Myanmar in the Early Cretaceous between 97-110 million years ago, almost certainly with dinosaurs wandering nearby.
Aside from showing the first and only fossil evidence of a spider attacking prey in its web, the piece of amber also contains the body of a male spider in the same web. This provides the oldest evidence of social behavior in spiders, which still exists in some species but is fairly rare. Most spiders have solitary, often cannibalistic lives, and males will not hesitate to attack immature species in the same web.
"This juvenile spider was going to make a meal out of a tiny parasitic wasp, but never quite got to it," said George Poinar, Jr., a professor emeritus of zoology at Oregon State University and world expert on insects trapped in amber. He outlined the findings in a new publication in the journal Historical Biology.
"This was a male wasp that suddenly found itself trapped in a spider web," Poinar said. "This was the wasp's worst nightmare, and it never ended. The wasp was watching the spider just as it was about to be attacked, when tree resin flowed over and captured both of them."
Spiders are ancient invertebrates that researchers believe date back some 200 million years, but the oldest fossil evidence ever found of a spider web is only about 130 million years old. An actual attack such as this between a spider and its prey caught in the web has never before been documented as a fossil, the researchers said.
The tree resin that forms amber is renowned for its ability to flow over insects, small plants and other life forms, preserving them in near perfection before it later turns into a semi-precious stone. It often gives scientists a look into the biology of the distant past. This spider, which may have been waiting patiently for hours to capture some prey, was smothered in resin just a split second before its attack.
This type of wasp, Poinar said, belongs to a group that is known today to parasitize spider and insect eggs. In that context, the attack by the spider, an orb-weaver, might be considered payback.
Both the spider and the wasp belong to extinct genera and are described in the paper. At least 15 unbroken strands of spider silk run through the amber piece, and on some of these the wasp was ensnared.
Its large and probably terrified eyes now stare for eternity at its attacker, moving in for the kill.
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Source:
[url]http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121008134523.htm[/url]
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:suicide:
[I]Even in death, they pursue you[/I]
that prey must have been like holy fuck thank you amber. However, it doesn't really look like it's enjoying itself.
What if the spider was trying to move the wasp out of the way of the incoming Amber Menace :(
[quote][img]http://images.sciencedaily.com/2012/10/121008134523-large.jpg?1349725738[/img][/quote]
That would make a badass paperweight
Or one of these
[img]http://www.cinemablend.com/images/news/13322/_1243554702.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=Raidyr;37966352]What if the spider was trying to move the wasp out of the way of the incoming Amber Menace :([/QUOTE]
Nope it was trying to eat him
They should extract some dinosaur blood now
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;37966269][I]Even in death, they pursue you[/I][/QUOTE]
[I]This amber is full of spiders...[/I]
I hope that picture isn't actual size [img]http://sae.tweek.us/static/images/emoticons/emot-barf.gif[/img]
It looks like wasps haven't evolved fuck all
actually that sort of makes sense; they don't really need to. NOBODY fucks with a wasp
that spider looks scary as shit
burn it
-snip- skipped over that paragraph.
[QUOTE=ycap5;37966684]so wait why were they so suddenly preserved I'm amber just as it was attacking?[/QUOTE]
a blob of tree resin could have dropped down during
Who knew something so terrifying could stand the test of time so well.
Actually, it reminds me a lot of this discovery
[img]http://www.baystatereplicas.com/images/dino_veloprotofighting_gaston.jpg[/img]
I wonder what ancient spider tastes like.
100 million years...fucking baffling. It's almost incomprehensible how long ago this happened yet the moment in time was captured and kept for the EXTREME distant future. I wonder if our generation will ever leave a mark for something else to find it 100 fucking million years later.
[QUOTE=laserguided;37967095]I wonder what ancient spider tastes like.[/QUOTE]
Old.
I always thought amber looked delicious
I mean obviously without the shit inside but still
[QUOTE=BenJammin';37967144]100 million years...fucking baffling. It's almost incomprehensible how long ago this happened yet the moment in time was captured and kept for the EXTREME distant future. I wonder if our generation will ever leave a mark for something else to find it 100 fucking million years later.[/QUOTE]
iphone 5 trapped in amber
[QUOTE=lord0war;37967327]iphone 5 trapped in amber[/QUOTE]
a feature
What happens if that amber melts and drips off the spider and wasp? The spider, set free to wreak terror once more, eats the wasp and grows to epic proportions due to the higher oxygen content in today's atmosphere. The world has never known a horror such as this, well at least not since I saw Eight Legged Freaks.
[QUOTE=lord0war;37967327]iphone 5 trapped in amber[/QUOTE]
Millions of years later, an eccentric billionaire will hire a team of scientists to extract the DNA, and clone it for his tourist park of overrated ancient technology.
Hold on to your butts.
[QUOTE=bunnyspy1;37967320]I always thought amber looked delicious
I mean obviously without the shit inside but still[/QUOTE]
Looks like honey, yum.
[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;37967372]What happens if that amber melts and drips off the spider and wasp? The spider, set free to wreak terror once more, eats the wasp and grows to epic proportions due to the higher oxygen content in today's atmosphere. The world has never known a horror such as this, well at least not since I saw Eight Legged Freaks.[/QUOTE]
IIRC the earth was more oxygen rich in prehistoric times.
[QUOTE=nox;37967467]IIRC the earth was more oxygen rich in prehistoric times.[/QUOTE]
It was, and spiders back then grew to almost as large as a small dog.
I learned that shit on the Discover Channel.
I'm going to need a legit source to believe that
[sp]googl[/sp]ing
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;37967549]It was, and spiders back then grew to almost as large as a small dog.
I learned that shit on the Discover Channel.[/QUOTE]
Would they have retained their wall-crawling abilities if their mass was that huge?
I mean that's what gets me about spiders; with a dog you know where it is, or at least you have a narrow range of possible locations limited to horizontal surfaces. And a dog won't sneak up on you.
Spiders can be ANYFUCKINGWHERE and they're flippin SILENT. They just creep down on their strings and tickle your ears and damnjustfuckoffspiders
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;37967549]It was, and spiders back then grew to almost as large as a small dog.
I learned that shit on the Discover Channel.[/QUOTE]
Welp, I guess that rules out time travel for me; I ain't fucking with that shit.
I always wonder what would have happened if a dinosaur somehow became trapped in a few thousand gallons of tree sap, which then became amber...
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