Scientists get a 3D view of ancient fossilised spider

Manchester University researchers, working with colleagues in Germany, showed that the amber fossil — housed in the Berlin Natural History Museum — is a member of a living genus of the Huntsman spiders (Sparassidae).

As well as documenting the spider, the scientists showed that specimens in historical pieces of amber can yield important data when studied by computed tomography.

‘More than 1,000 species of fossil spider have been described, many of them from amber,’ said Dr David Penney, from Manchester’s Faculty of Life Sciences. ‘The best-known source is Baltic amber, which is about 49 million years old and that has been actively studied for more than 150 years.

‘Indeed, some of the first fossil spiders to be described back in 1854 were from the historically significant collection of Georg Karl Berendt, which is held in the Berlin Natural History museum. A problem here is that these old, historical amber pieces have reacted with oxygen over time and are now often dark or cracked, making it hard to see the animal specimens inside.’