X-rays extract 'virtual harvestman' from French fossils (BBC NEWS)

Here is an interesting article on the BBC news website concerning the fossils of 'harvest men' as they are known, they look much like your average long spindly legged spider.

Its seem that they have not changed much over the course of 300million years, apart from the fact that they look more alien back then.

www.bbc.co.uk...

Some scientists have used a special 3D x-ray too make a 3 dimensional video / animation of the said creatures



Please see links for full article (bbc.co.uk/news)

reply to post by Dubninja


No one gave this any attention? I guess there's no controversy to bitter against here.

Still, at least something should be said. This is nifty.

You'd think someone would have said by now "THEY HAVEN'T CHANGED, THIS PROVES YOUNG EARTH CREATIONISM" or something along those lines. Same things are said about sharks and alligators/crocodiles.

I'll go ahead and contribute with my preemptive strike.

These organisms haven't changed much morphologically because they are successful species. Sharks have been top predators in the ocean for millions of years. What they've got going for them generally works. The same goes for alligators. They chill out, grab a bite to eat every once in a while. It works. They don't really have any selective pressures that would cause them to change dramatically.

Originally posted by PieKeeper
You'd think someone would have said by now "THEY HAVEN'T CHANGED, THIS PROVES YOUNG EARTH CREATIONISM" or something along those lines. Same things are said about sharks and alligators/crocodiles.

300 million year old fossils prove the earth is 6,000 years old?

I know you don't think that yuorself, but that was realistically funny.

Beautiful sketches, and thanks for the article. Harvestmen are one of my favorite arthropods. It's interesting that something with what you might think are so many evolutionary disadvantages (tiny mouthparts, almost completely blind, extremely fragile limbs) have been so successful. I find it interesting that a number of species go through millions of years of evolution with the original stock preserved even while it speciates.

Originally posted by Byrd
Beautiful sketches, and thanks for the article. Harvestmen are one of my favorite arthropods. It's interesting that something with what you might think are so many evolutionary disadvantages (tiny mouthparts, almost completely blind, extremely fragile limbs) have been so successful. I find it interesting that a number of species go through millions of years of evolution with the original stock preserved even while it speciates.

I was thinking the same thing, but I was wondering about their trump card....don't they have a very deadly venom? We are just lucky enough that they have wimpy fangs and can't hurt us? I might be confused with another spider I might have to go a googling after dinner.

reply to post by topherman420


This is a myth. Harvestmen don't even have fangs, much less the venom glands need to produce venom.