Spider web confirmed as 'oldest'

[ccharles000]

Spider webs encased in amber which were discovered on an East Sussex beach have been confirmed by scientists as being the world's oldest on record.

The amber, which was found in Bexhill by fossil hunter Jamie Hiscocks and his brother Jonathan, dates back 140 million years to the Cretaceous period.

Professor Martin Brasier said they were the earliest webs to be incorporated into the fossil record.

He has published his findings in the Journal of the Geological Society.

Professor Brasier, who is a palaeobiologist at the University of Oxford, said: "This amber is very rare. It comes from the very base of the Cretaceous, which makes it one of the oldest ambers anywhere to have inclusions in it."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/sussex/8335719.stm

[underseasurveyor]

1. You find some of the coolest stuff on the internets

:toast:

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. This is aburd - no piece of amber could preserve prehistoric spider webs.

Those webs were WAY too big - strands were an inch thick at least, because the spiders were 6 feet across.

I know. I saw them in a movie once.

[Lochloosa]

4. Must everthing be explained....

The trees that produced the amber were HUGE! Thus, the amber is HUGE.

Proportions.....

Geezzzz

[Soylent Brice]

3. freaking awesome! thanks for sharing!

[MattBaggins]

5. Where do you find your stuff?

The range of things that interest you is bizarre and I mean that as compliment.

[ccharles000]

6. ...

From a few blogs(swing state project,pams house blend,feministing)and things like BBC.

[roguevalley]

7. urp. Spiders. I would still shoot them with a gun.

Rv, who hates spiders and grew up with black widows in the house, the bastards.

[a la izquierda]

8. Spiders are the tools of the devil...

I hate them.

[chalky]

11. I don't hate ALL spiders...

...just the ones with eight legs.

[a la izquierda]

12. hahaha...

i don't hate them all-daddy longlegs are fine-but i've had bad run-ins with them.
i got bit in the face by a wolf spider when i was a kid.
my dog was bitten and eventually died from a brown recluse.
i had a huge spider (and a scorpion) next to my bed when i was living in mexico.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

9. Very cool.

[malaise]

10. Another great post

Thanks