The oldest spider web in the world

A spider silk with an entangled insect still intact there was found in a piece of amber in Spain. The amazing thing is that it dates back 110 million years, from the time of the dinosaurs.

The grid also printed the entire trace of a fly, a beetle, mites, and wasps. It seems to be designed with straight lines cut through concentric networks, like the structure of modern webs.

The amber plate clearly shows spider webs with insects caught in it. Photo: LiveScience
The discovery opens new light on the early evolution of spiders and insects that feed on them.

The net consists of about 26 strands of silk, preserved in a thin amber layer along with the spider's prey. Although not intact, the rest of it is enough to convince that it could be a kind of wheel-shaped network.

This may be the oldest spider web ever recorded. In the past, a spider silk that was preserved in amber was once found, but it is not known if it is part of a real spider web.

" The progressive structure of fossilized spider webs found in Spain, along with the kind of prey caught there, has shown that spiders know how to catch insects from the air for a very long time ," said Dr. David. Grimaldi from the American Museum of Natural History said.

T. An