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PremiumVIVAnews -Researchers find fossil spider species named Nephila jurassica. A spider which comes from the time of dinosaurs is the largest spider fossils ever found. He found buried in volcanic ash prehistoric around the Inner Mongolia, China.
When found, it appears the former-the former fiber-like hair on her legs. This makes the animals that live around 165 million years ago to become the oldest ancestor of the largest spider species that still exist today.
The fossil itself has the same size as Nephila, his brother who lives in the present. Nephila jurassica have a body size of 2.5 centimeters and legs that can reach a length of 6.3 centimetres.
"Probably he lived like a spider and knitting jaringnya in the open in the forests, or possibly on the edge of the forest close to the Lake," said Paul Selden, Director of the Paleontological Institute, University of Kansas, as quoted from LiveScience, April 25, 2011.
Then, says Selden, chances are there is a volcano in the area that produces the volcanic dust deposition in a lake that brings into grave of animals.
As known, the spider is the most terrestrial predators many current and keep the number of insect remains stable. "So, these findings can help us understand the evolution of prey-predator relationship between insects and spiders," said Selden.
On the species of the spider golden orb-weaver like this, females generally have a larger body size than males. As for the fossils found were female spiders. This indicates that the trend of larger females has occurred at least in the era of the Middle Jurassic, well before the time of Archaeopteryx, the first ever known or giant dinosaurs like Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus.
However, although Nephila jurassica is the largest spider fossils ever found, it is not a fossil spider fossils are oldest. Previously found two other species of spiders in Coseley, United Kingdom: Eocteniza silvicola and Protocteniza britannica. Both are derived from 310 million years ago.
Currently, Selden and his associates Central observe other spider fossil found in China and other regions in the world such as Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, and Korea. The results of his research published in the journal Biology Letters. (sj)
Found, The Largest Spider Fossil
