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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."

2 of 413 comments (clear)

  1. Re:blah! by Gulthek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The Earth is actually 5,000 years old and was created by the great Flying Spaghetti Monster. But in His infinite wisdom, he created it old.

    I.E. He created a world that was millions of years old 5,000 years ago.

  2. Two questions... by Maxim+Kovalenko · · Score: 5, Interesting

    1. Why is there no reference to how they know that the spider is that old?... and 2. Does the writer actually know that spiders have hemolymph instead of blood as us humans would look at it? Sigh...lazy science reporting strikes again.

    --
    Requiem