Video: 49 million year old spider fossil

With the most advanced imaging technology, European scientists have obtained unexpected holograms of fossil spider samples 49 million years ago stuck in amber.

Scientists at the University of Manchester and colleagues in Germany obtained complex images (can only be observed under a microscope) by using X-ray imaging to study an unusual species of spider.

In the article published in the international journal Naturwissenschaften , scientists showed fossil samples in amber (currently stored at the Berlin Museum of Natural History ), a member of the Huntsman spider (scientific name). is Sparassidae) today. This is a large group of spiders, often active and free, and rarely trapped in amber.

According to scientists, the samples in amber when obtained may be in very bad condition, but still provide important data if studied by calculated x-ray method.

' More than 1,000 fossil spider patterns have been described, many of which are taken from amber' , TS. David Penney at Manchester University, said. ' The best source today is the Balctic amber model, which dates back 49 million years, and has been studied for over 150 years.'

Previously, the most difficult problem in describing ancient spider fossil samples was that the ancient pieces of amber reacted with oxygen over time, so they became dark or cracked, making the observation of samples Spider inside is very difficult.

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