Scientists Digitally Dissect Fossil Spider

Using a technique called very high-resolution x-ray computed tomography, researchers at the University of Manchester dissected a 50 million year old spider encased in amber. As reported in Zootaxa, leveraging the same technology used in CAT scans, it can make out features the width of a human hair. In this case, the technique enabled the researchers to identify the critter of Halloween past as a new species.

i-784c0466cbbca62119a1cdd49426f9c9-spiderfossi.jpg

i-68507842136ab3bcd49ad726e5898b0a-spider Fossil2.jpg

More like this

I'm so pumped about this technology finally being used on invertebrates! There is so much we can still learn about some of these ancient species.

By arachnophile (not verified) on 11 Nov 2007 #permalink