Recreate the 410 million-year-old spider's walking

Researchers from the University of Manchester and the Für Naturkunde Museum in Berlin recently "revived" an old 410 million-year-old spider - one of the first terrestrial predators.

Accordingly, the experts recreated this ancient spider's ground walk by using computer graphics to study the movement in each of the arms and legs of the ancient spider. Then they compare with the walk with live spiders today.

410 million-year-old spider fossil X-ray photos provided by London's Natural History Museum

This few millimeter-long ancient spider species of the Trigonotarbid species roamed from about 419 to 290 million years ago and was among the first group of arthropods to appear on Earth. Their prey are often invertebrate animals, not carefully strayed into the spider's territory and eaten.

Dr Russell Garwood, a paleontologist at Manchester University, said: "When it comes to ancient creatures, many people often think of marine animals or big species like dinosaurs, birds . but few people pay attention to small spiders, but few know, 300-400 million years ago, it seems that spiders are a very popular animal.Using computer graphics tools, we have can understand more about the structure of leg joints as well as how to move this animal ".

Study co-author - Dr. Jason Dunlop - who is in charge of the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin (Germany), said: "This study gives us a better understanding of the steps of the ancient spider. This will contribute to a special collection of 3D images and fossil analysis of more than 400 million year old spiders. "

Dr. Garwood added: "Using this software will help us better understand the lives of terrestrial animals".

The study is published in the Journal of Paleontology.