Revive the ancient spider

From the fossil model of an ancient spider that once lived on the earth more than 50 million years ago, scientists at the University of Manchester City (UK) created vivid 3D images like It's about this spider.

An amber fossil of a male spider dating to about 53 million years has been found in France and named Cenotetriclla simony .

Using super-resolution CT technique (abbreviated as VHT-CT), scientists have obtained extremely high quality and detailed cut of fossil samples to study the internal organs of the spider, then recreates this creature meticulously on the computer.

According to Dr. David Penney, who directly studied this fossil specimen, this is the first time that the VHT-CT technique has been used to operate fossilized specimens in amber . VHR-CT is a technology developed in the diagnosis of diseases, and until recently it has been applied to archeology and not yet popular.

3D images reproduced from amber fossils of a male spider that once inhabited the Earth 53 million years ago(Photo: Sciencedaily)

Before Penney, only Texas University used VHT-CT to study archaeological specimens, but the images they obtained were always of very limited quality. Penney's colleagues at the radiation and sub-atomic physics department of Ghent University (Belgium) have studied and significantly improved the resolution of VHR-CT capture technology, and it has brought to he was surprisingly sharp.

The photos show that, like most fossilized specimens in other amber, the spider fossils mentioned above contain a lot of valuable scientific information, which is the key to scientists opening the door. return to the ancient ecosystem. This is the highest species of spider species fossil that is known to date.

Last year, a Mexican researcher also found a spider fossil dating back to 20 million years and named Episinus penneyi to honor the school he had previously studied.

Dang Ngoc Yen