Arachnophobes take heed: this ancient
spider had a whip-like tail
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[February 06, 2018]
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If you are not a fan
of spiders, you may not like the creepy little arachnid scientists found
entombed in chunks of amber from northern Myanmar. Unlike its spider
cousins alive today, this guy had a tail.
Scientists on Monday described four specimens of the arachnid, called
Chimerarachne yingi, that inhabited a Cretaceous Period tropical forest
about 100 million years ago during the dinosaur age. Alongside modern
spider traits such as a silk-producing structure called a spinneret, it
possessed a remarkably primitive feature: a whip-like tail covered in
short hairs that it may have used for sensing predators and prey.
"It is a key fossil for understanding spider origins," said
paleontologist Bo Wang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "Our new
fossil most likely represents the earliest branch of spiders, and
implies that there was a lineage of tailed spiders that presumably
originated in the Paleozoic (the geological era that ended 251 million
years ago) and survived at least into the Cretaceous of Southeast Asia."

Despite its fearsome appearance, the fanged Chimerarachne was only about
three-tenths of an inch (7.5 mm) long, more than half of which was its
tail.
University of Kansas paleontologist Paul Selden said Chimerarachne
represents "a kind of missing link" between true spiders and earlier
spider forerunners that had tails but lacked spinnerets.
"Chimerarachne could be considered as a spider. It all depends on where
we decide to draw the line," Selden said. "I am sure arachnophobes would
not like this animal, except that it is only a few millimeters long, so
it would be living almost unseen by them."
The earliest arachnids, a group including spiders, scorpions, mites,
ticks and others, dates to about 420 million years ago. The oldest-known
true spiders lived about 315 millions year ago.
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A Cretaceous arachnid Chimerarachne yingi, found trapped in a 100
million year old amber from Myanmar, appears in a handout
illustration provided on February 5, 2018. Illustration by Dinghua
Yang/University of Kansas/Handout via REUTERS

Numerous animals and plants have been found beautifully preserved
inside amber, which is fossilized tree resin. Many important amber
finds have been made in Myanmar. Chimerarachne may have lived under
bark or in the moss at the foot of a tree.
"All four specimens are adult males, which would have been roving
around looking for females at this point in their lives," Selden
said.
"Chimerarachne most likely wove a sheet web, and possibly a burrow
lined with silk. Spiders use silk for a great many purposes, of
which prey-capture webs is just one. Egg-wrapping is a vital
function for spider silk, as well as laying a trail to find its way
back home."
The research was published in the journal Nature Ecology &
Evolution.
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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