Fossilised spider 'biggest on record'

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: BBC

Scientists have described a Chinese spider they say is the biggest fossilised arachnid yet found.

The female, which lived about 165 million years ago, belongs to a collection of spiders well known today - the golden orb weavers.

These creatures make webs from a very tough and distinctively golden silk.

The researchers tell the journal Biology Letters that Nephila jurassica, as they have called their specimen, would have had a leg span of some 15cm.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13134505?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[DCKit]

1. Cool! Giant Spiders! nt

[NYC_SKP]

2. At 15 cm, it's only half the leg span of the current living largest arachnid.

I was hoping this fossil might be VW sized, but I guess not.

The current record: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_huntsman_spider

Giant Huntsman (Heteropoda maxima)

[Sonoman]

6. And that is one heck of a cymbium.

Mere words escape me...

Sonoman

[Rosa Luxemburg]

14. I don't want to meet one!

[Blue_Tires]

16. KILL IT WITH FIRE

:hide:

[BadgerKid]

3. Got some big (sci-fi) spiders...

[emmadoggy]

4. Awww, you forgot Aragog!

Acromantula and King of the Arachnids.

:P

[BadgerKid]

15. Farewell, Aragog, king of arachnids....

;)

[Pterodactyl]

5. I'm glad they are extinct!

[JoeyT]

13. The ones that are alive now are about that big.

[rpannier]

7. Very cool

If I saw one I think I'd have a heart attack

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. It's the AGE - Jurassic - that's huge! Another report on this:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/big-spider-fossil

This spider belongs to an living family of spiders and she predated Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, and the other Cretaceous dinosaurs by many millions of years. The preservation of this female orb-weaver is exquisite - look at the individual hairs on the leg:

[Lefta Dissenter]

9. Cool!

Sent it on to my dad, with whom I spent several months collecting spiders on the Galapagos Islands.

We don't get Spider News very often! :bounce:

[Yupster]

10. Before Obama the largest fossilized

spider would have been an American one.

[RedCloud]

17. is this a new yardstick in measuring time?

[WatsonT]

11. And this is why we mastered fire

/ok maybe not this one in particular.

[xchrom]

12. Yikes! Nt