Largest ever spider fossil found
The largest ever fossil of a prehistoric spider, 165 million years old with a six inch leg span, has been discovered.
The legs would have spanned up to 15cm, front to back
2:31PM BST 20 Apr 2011
Its fossilised features have been so perfectly preserved that experts have identified it down to the exact species and were even able to tell it was an adult female.
The Golden Orb Weaver has been named Nephila jurassica. It lived in the forests of northern China when the climate was much warmer and more tropical than today.
Its discovery in Inner Mongolia means Golden Orb Weavers, or 'nephilids' – giant spiders that can grow bigger than a human hand and which still thrive today – are the longest ranging spider genus known to man in terms of age.
Prof Paul Selden, a paleontologist from Kansas University, said the females are the largest web-weaving spiders alive today with a body length of up to two inches and a leg span of six inches. Males are relatively diminutive in comparison.
They are "common and spectacular" inhabitants of tropical and subtropical regions with females weaving distinctive five foot wide webs of yellow silk that glisten like gold in sunlight.
Prof Selden, who reports his discovery in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters said the find means Golden Orb Weavers must have an unusually ancient lineage, an extremely long range for any animal genus.
The find also suggests the climate was "warm and humid at this time".
