Largest Fossil Spider Ever Found Gives Peek Into Arachnid Evolution | 80beats | Discover Magazine

 

Largest Fossil Spider Ever Found Gives Peek Into Arachnid Evolution

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Nephila jurassica, with a 5mm scale bar

What’s the News: Researchers have unearthed the largest fossilized spider yet, announced in a study online today in Biology Letters. The fossil, a Jurassic Period ancestor of the modern orb-weaver spider,  gives scientists a glimpse not only into the evolutionary history of orb-weaver spiders, but how these ancient arachnids might have impacted the evolution of insect species that could be snared in the webs.

How the Heck:

• The fossil, found preserved in volcanic ash in the  Daohugou fossil beds in northeastern China, dates back 165 million years. The researchers dubbed the species Nephila jurassica.
• At about an inch long, the spider’s body isn’t unusually large, but its leg span, at nearly six inches, is the largest seen in a fossil spider.
• This spider was female, suggesting the size disparity seen in modern orb-weaver spiders—with females dwarfing the males—may have begun at least 165 million years ago.
• Silk spinning organs, called spinnerets, preserved on the fossilized spider’s legs suggest that, like its modern counterparts, Nephila jurassica spun big, durable webs.
• The spider’s formidable prey-catching ability likely drove the evolution of the medium-to-large insects it fed on, as those species scrambled to survive, the researchers wrote.

What’s the Context:

• Until now, the earliest known fossil from the Nephila genus was 34 million years old; this find pushes back the origin of the genus 130 million years from what researchers previously thought.
• Modern orb-weaver spiders live in tropical climes, so this fossil suggests that the region where it was found may have had a much muggier climate during the Jurassic than it does today.
• The oldest fossil spiders ever found are nearly twice as old as this specimen, dating back 310 million years.
• While its size is remarkable for a fossilized spider, Nephila jurassica‘s legspan is only half as big as that of the world’s largest living spiders, the evocatively named goliath bird-eater and giant huntsman.

Reference: Paul A. Selden, ChungKun Shih and Dong Ren. “A golden orb-weaver spider (Araneae: Nephilidae: Nephila) from the Middle Jurassic of China.” Biology Letters online before print, April 20, 2011. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.0228

Image: Selden et al. paper

Largest Fossil Spider Ever Found Gives Peek Into Arachnid Evolution | 80beats | Discover Magazine

Pubget: the search engine for life-science PDFs

Pubget: the search engine for life-science PDFs

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Each year, scientists spend at least a quarter billion minutes searching for biomedical literature online. This is time they could better spend curing disease and building the future. Pubget's mission is to give them (you!) that time back.

Pubget: the search engine for life-science PDFs

MedlinePlus: Medical Encyclopedia

MedlinePlus: Medical Encyclopedia 

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The A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia includes over 4,000 articles about diseases, tests, symptoms, injuries, and surgeries. It also contains an extensive library of medical photographs and illustrations. For more information about A.D.A.M., see its content review board.

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Library recognizes Darwin's contributions Feb 12

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Library recognizes Darwin's contributions Feb 12

February 12, 2009, 2:00 & 3:00 pm
Parks Library, Room 192

The library is recognizing Darwin's contributions to science and culture by hosting a celebration on Feb 12^th, 2009 for Darwin's 200^th Birthday and the 150^th Anniversary of the publication of his book "On the Origin of Species". There will be 2 presentations: "Darwin and Culture" and "Darwin's Citation Impact" at 2:00 and 3:00 respectively.

Darwin and Culture - Heather Lewin
Asst. Professor & Subject Librarian
Science & Technology

A survey of literature to examine the culture in which Darwin's work was presented and the impact of his work on culture up to this day. Includes impact on sociology, psychology, archeology, literature, and many other facets of culture.

Darwin's Citation Impact - Lorrie Pellack
Assoc. Professor & Department Head
Science & Technology

This session will cover basic definitions of impact factors, citation impact and h index. Then, will look at Charles Darwin's publication record, the process involved in determining his citation impact, and compare Darwin's citation impact to that of modern day researchers in ecology and evolutionary biology.

Special Collections

Additionally there will be a display in Special Collections of some of Darwin's publications.

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Encyclopedia of Life

Encyclopedia of Life 

Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is an ambitious project to organize and make available via the Internet virtually all information about life present on Earth. At its heart lies a series of Web sites—one for each of the approximately 1.8 million known species. Each site is constantly evolving and features dynamically synthesized content ranging from historical literature and biological descriptions to stunning images, videos and distribution maps. Join us as we explore the richness of Earth’s biodiversity!

Encyclopedia of Life