Thanks to a chance find by farmers in Inner Mongolia, scientists have learned that today’s largest web-weaving spiders are about 130 million years older than previously thought. In 2005 Chinese farmers digging in ancient volcanic ash unearthed the fossil at the right, the biggest spider fossil ever discovered and one of the best preserved. Paul A. Selden, director of the University of Kansas Paleontological Institute, and his colleagues, writing in April in the online Biology Letters, report that the female spider, a member of the Nephila genus, measures nearly one inch in length, has a leg span of more than five inches and is 165 million years old. “Extremely fine details, such as sensory hairs called trichobothria, which the spider uses to detect air vibrations, can be seen,” Selden says. No word on her ability to write “Some pig.”

7 Comments

1. 1. quizzical 11:57 AM 6/24/11

   Very Interesting article.
   But where is even one single "predecessor" such as Darwin imagined?
   This spider looks exactly like a contemporary spider to me. But then, since I am no expert on arachnids, who would listen to me? I just wonder if the dating methods are as accurate as they are presumed to be.
   

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2. 2. lamorpa in reply to quizzical 08:24 AM 7/8/11

   @quizzical: Yes. The dating methods are as accurate as they are presumed to be, by multiple independent verifications. Why do you ask? As far as the "predecessor" goes, there are millions of examples, sequences, adaptations, etc. How have you missed them?

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3. 3. JamesDavis 08:50 AM 7/8/11

   Indeed, that is very interesting that that spider can be that old and still look like a modern day spider. I wonder what did that spider evolved from and how many years it took it evolving to get to looking like that? Paleontologists are always saying that we modern humans evolved from monkeys... I wonder if this spider has changed their minds on that theory and we can start calling a rose a rose again?

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4. 4. nogod in reply to JamesDavis 09:42 AM 7/8/11

   Maybe you should go ask your church? Paleontologists never said that homospaians evolved from "monkeys". You should have paid more attention in biology class.

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5. 5. David N'Gog 01:26 PM 7/8/11

   The fact that spider "design" hasn't changed much in 165 million years isn't that big of a surprise really.
   
   Just like roaches- also been around a long time without changing- they are perfect to fill the niche they're in- and fill in nicely in just about every eco-system in which animals can survive.
   
   Nonetheless to say spiders haven't evolved is rediculous. There isn't enough evidence to say that. Fossils don't show us the internal workings- and we don't have fossils going back that far for all the widely diverse types of spiders we have today.
   
   The basic shape may be the same- but that's only because it's a good fit for the spirder's "purpose".

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6. 6. JamesDavis in reply to nogod 04:34 PM 7/8/11

   "nogod", did you make it through the fifth grade? Maybe you should go back to school and learn the meaning of church-n-god and what people are called who study bones and other fossils. You are a pathetic person who throws god into everything you do not understand.

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7. 7. co2dog 09:33 PM 7/11/11

   Environmental fit. That's the message of Darwin. Look at the coelacanth that is essentially unchanged from before the dinosaurs,and also ants, cockroaches, jellyfish, etc. These organisms have survived without detectable change because of environmental fit. Live well enough to have kids that look like you and the ones that don't look like you die out because the ones like you are better fit. No changes without a need to change.

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