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20 Million Year Old Spider Found

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the complete-with-drivers-license-and-birth-certificate dept.

evil agent writes "BBC News is reporting that Paleontologist Dr. David Penny has found a spider, and two droplets of blood, perfectly perserved in amber. He was able to extract the blood and determine its age: 20 million years old. Since it is thought to be the first time that spider blood has been found perserved in amber, it is hoped that DNA could be extracted."

4 of 413 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Worried soul here! by hey+hey+hey · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I am worried that such specimen could be concealing deadly bacteria/viruses that man does not know how to handle.
    I'm not. But to reassure you, he will be doing all his work in a sterile environment, to avoid contaminating the specimen. Happily, the precautions work both ways.

    Mind you, there is a rumor that AIDS was a rogue virus that escaped from some American lab.
    There are also rumors that the moon is made of green cheese, and that the rapture will be next Thursday. Do you plan on repeating them too?

  2. Re:blah! by mfh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First all those dinosaur bones and now this!

    While we both know you're kidding, I have to wonder about the authenticity of carbon dating proceedures in general. I'm sure lots of scientists believe in them wholeheartedly, but I'm of a more humble seed. If they say this is a 20mil yr old spider, then I would agree under the stipulation that it's 20mil yrs in relation to everything else we've carbon dated. ;-)

    --
    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
  3. Re:blah! by operagost · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Funny how this 20 million year old spider species exists in identical form today. It must be a perfectly adapted design; why else would it not have changed in all that time?

    --

    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  4. Just out of raw curiousity... by QueenNina · · Score: 5, Insightful
    From the article:
    Palaeontologist Dr David Penney, of the University of Manchester, found the 4cm long by 2cm wide fossil during a visit to a museum in the Dominican Republic.

    Since the discovery two years ago, he has used droplets of blood in the amber to reveal the age of the specimen.

    Um, if he "found" it in a museum, doesn't that mean someone ELSE discovered it?

    Just curious.