Morgan BellAncient spider dissected by scientists
October 30th 2007 15:00
WARNING: Arachnophobics do NOT proceed! 
Scientists from the UK and Belgium with a thing or two for spiders and other creepy-crawly creatures have "digitally dissected" a 53 million year old spider trapped in amber and preserved in a lowland area around Paris.
The tiny spider, (about 1mm in length) was digitally dissected by scientists using medical imaging technique, known as Very High Resolution X-Ray Computed Tomography to reveal amazing details of the spider including its internal organs.
The spider dissected was found to be a new species and is a male. Formally classified as Cenotextricella simoni, it would have inhabited a wooded area and lived in a warm climate all those millions of years ago.
Dr. David Penney, from Manchester University said that a breakthrough in the study of amber fossils had been achieved: "Amber provides a unique window into past forest ecosystems. It retains an incredible amount of information, not just about the spiders themselves, but also about the environment in which they lived."
"The use of X-Ray Computed Tomography has the potential to "revolutionise" the way fossils were studied." he added.
Source: BBC
Scientists from the UK and Belgium with a thing or two for spiders and other creepy-crawly creatures have "digitally dissected" a 53 million year old spider trapped in amber and preserved in a lowland area around Paris.
The tiny spider, (about 1mm in length) was digitally dissected by scientists using medical imaging technique, known as Very High Resolution X-Ray Computed Tomography to reveal amazing details of the spider including its internal organs.
The internal organs can be seen in the image on the bottom right-hand corner
The spider dissected was found to be a new species and is a male. Formally classified as Cenotextricella simoni, it would have inhabited a wooded area and lived in a warm climate all those millions of years ago.
Dr. David Penney, from Manchester University said that a breakthrough in the study of amber fossils had been achieved: "Amber provides a unique window into past forest ecosystems. It retains an incredible amount of information, not just about the spiders themselves, but also about the environment in which they lived."
"The use of X-Ray Computed Tomography has the potential to "revolutionise" the way fossils were studied." he added.
Source: BBC
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