A large brush-footed trapdoor spider and a small jumping spider from the Miocene Epoch between 11 and 16 million years ago show how different arachnids responded to rapidly changing climate
Two fossilised spiders have been found entombed in iron-rich sediments at a recently discovered site in New South Wales, Australia.
One is the second biggest fossil spider that has ever been uncovered, and it has been identified as a new species of brush-footed trapdoor spider, namedOnly a handful of ancient spider remains have been found in Australia. “There’s no shortage of spiders living in Australia today, but the fossil record is nearly blank,” saysat the Australian Museum Research Institute, who led the study on the new species. “And it’s rare to find specimens that contain such exquisite detail as these.
The size and shape of the legs, as well as the telltale hairs that give these “brush-footed” trapdoor spiders their name, helped classify the creature. It is the firstA monthly celebration of the biodiversity of our planet’s animals, plants and other organisms.. Although it is just 2 millimetres long, it is so well preserved that scientists can examine internal structures with detail down to a few nanometres.
Jumping spiders, the new find suggests, probably originated in Australia and then migrated to Asia, supporting a hypothesis developed by studying genetic sequences.
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