Discovering new species is always very important from the point of view of science. Especially if these species became extinct hundreds of millions of years ago. These findings help scientists better understand how evolution works, and to know what was our planet long before it settled people. Yesterday the staff of the University of Kansas published the photos of the amazing “night of the spider”, whose body is almost perfectly preserved in a piece of amber. This unusual creature lived on Earth for over 100 million years ago.
A piece of amber with unusual contents inside were discovered on the territory of Myanmar. Previously, these spiders are known to science was not. The new species was named Chimerarachne yingi in honor of chimeras, because of modern spiders discovered species is distinguished by the presence of the tail. Chimera in Greek mythology was called the monster with the head and neck of a lion, body of a goat and the tail in the form of a snake. Scientists agree that the spider-Chimera mediates the evolution of arachnids.
Chimerarachne yingi almost could not spin a web, because the organ responsible for its production, was the spider in its infancy. The tail, as the researchers suggest, helped the creature to hunt and to protect themselves from predators. This kind of flagellum spider was used as a tactile organ, to feel the surrounding objects and find prey. The size of the body of the spider is about 2.5 millimeters, while the length of the tail reaches 3 millimetres. The results of their research scientists published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
Scientists have discovered a piece of amber extinct spider Chimera
Sergey Grey