100-Million-Year-Old Spider Attack Recorded in Amber

Trapped in a piece of amber, the juvenile spider appears to be on the cusp of devouring a male wasp that was caught in its web. Such a grisly scene between spider and prey has never before been found in the fossil record.

The amazing snapshot shows an event that occurred in the Early Cretaceous period, about 97 to 110 million years ago, in the Hukawng Valley of Myanmar, “almost certainly with dinosaurs wandering nearby,” as the press release about this discovery reports. The spider is a social orb-weaver spider, formally known as Geratonephila burmanica, and its victim is a wasp of the species Cascoscelio incassus. Both species are extinct today but the fossil suggests that insect behavior from the past is not too different from the present.

www.wired.com...

Sorry can't download and post pic, but it's on the link. (At work sorry!)

Here you go. I saw this earlier today. Just amazing. I guess the fly, got the last laugh.........

reply to post by sonnny1


Thanks matey!

reply to post by CaptainBeno


I am still baffled and perplexed as to how these awesome moments are caught in amber, mid action. I have always been in awe over all the cases of living things caught in amber, coal, etc. How does that work?
This is no doubt an epic moment forever frozen.
Great find & share!
S&F!

Originally posted by CaptainBeno
reply to post by sonnny1

 

Thanks matey!

CaptainBeno - I want to marry your avatar and have little Cookie Monster babies with it.
LOVE that thing.


Regarding the spider...
That's pretty awesome. I'm not sure that the fly "got the last laugh", though. Maybe if he'd flown away just before the amber trapped and killed them both, that would be true. Looks like they BOTH got screwed, really.

I think it's strange how spiders and wasps have not evolved for around 100 million years when the first primate was around 100 million years ago.

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by Awen24


Hahaha! Mmmmm cookie babies!

Originally posted by NeoSpace
I think it's strange how spiders and wasps have not evolved for around 100 million years when the first primate was around 100 million years ago.

en.wikipedia.org...

Which is why we must feel lucky to be human. It is the greatest privilege to be a human, to be able to look at the stars, to be able to sing ...

I want my casket filled to the brim with Sap, maybe have my body put into a sweet pose. Millions of years later, someone might find me, and think about what happened. I could potentially get cloned! The future is great.

i am a bit puzzled. from what i have learned specimens supposedly get caught in amber after wandering into and getting stuck in tree sap, which gets turned into the amber. but this "stop action" scene seems to say that whatever happened it was instantaneous. that is whatever happened happened in a split second, almost as if they were teliported in mid action. i would think that even if a big glob of sap fell on them mid fight that there would be more disturbance to the spider and wasp. it just has me going HUH.

nice find by the way, i always love things in amber, it's just so cool.

reply to post by MmmPie


Sap filled coffin! Now that is a great idea!

Originally posted by NeoSpace
I think it's strange how spiders and wasps have not evolved for around 100 million years when the first primate was around 100 million years ago.

en.wikipedia.org...

As is commonly said on animal shows about sharks and crocodiles "40 million years of evolution has made them perfect" Or something to that effect.

Maybe they are perfectly suited to their purpose and not meant to evolve any further.

Personally, I like to think that creatures stay at a point in evolution for a period of time until things have changed enough that they are forced to adapt. Perhaps they just haven't encountered a need to change over the last 100 million years or so.

If so, my curiosity makes me wonder at what the next evolution for them will be. Or for any other animal.
What new abilities or tactics could they add to their current version?

reply to post by generik


That's a good point you bring up. It's almost like they were frozen in time.
Maybe the wasp was already trapped in the tree sap when the spider found it and thought it had an easy meal, only to get stuck too.

100 million years old...? Doubt it..... Makes no sense at all...

Spider web on tree
Sap dripping down tree
Sap covers spider and fly



NAH IT MUST BE ALIENS OR GOD OR TIME TRAVELLERS

reply to post by sonnny1


aww, poor fella died holding its happy meal

reply to post by dayve

100 million years old...? Doubt it..... Makes no sense at all...

Can you elaborate on this statement?

What part doesn't make sense?

Originally posted by NeoSpace
I think it's strange how spiders and wasps have not evolved for around 100 million years when the first primate was around 100 million years ago.

en.wikipedia.org...

I guess that depends on how you define "evolved". My guess is you're waiting for the spiders to start speaking English. Spiders have evolved since then, we have a wide range of species which didn't exist back then and they have all sorts of ingenious methods for catching their prey. How have we really evolved from those first primates? We still basically look like monkeys who walk upright and have less hair than normal. I mean we are classified as primates. Our intellect is the main thing that separates us from all other species. It's just luck of the draw that we reached that stage of evolution first. Other species will eventually reach it if the planet lasts long enough.

1- If religious people come here, know that god days does not equal our days because he lives in another universe. Easy as that. Does it talk about people/creatures in the Bible/Torah? If you are a Muslim, it says that Earth is older than humans and Adam and Eve and belonged to the Jinn. Just setting things straight from the start. No need to ruin a good topic.

2- Could this be faked? I think yes. Not because the spider or the wasp look fake, but anyone can do such thing in their backyard, right? If it is ineeded true, it looks amazing and perfectly timed. Poor fella did not get his last meal

Nice! I clicked the 'hot topic' link to say - I don't understand how these things, especially a spider, can get caught in sap like this, when it always seems to be slow and gooey, and ooze down a tree. And it seems others do too! Spiders would surely have enough time to move? Unless they've perhaps got caught in a very tiny bit first. Maybe with one leg in and impossible to get away, they decide to seal their fate in an artistic way like this

Maybe just the portrayal in this "action shot". A bit like if you or I were to be turned to stone by Medusa. You instantly strike a "The Scream" pose & that's it you're like that for the rest of eternity

Maybe I'm just dumb.





There's probably a hundred possible reasons why these two ended up like that, in that moment of time. But it'd be great if science (or ATS speculation) could figure out how this sequence came to pass.

...encased in amber probably got there when they flew or crawled on to the fresh seeping sap and then got stuck. The sap oozed over the trapped animals and...

...speculates this website. Interesting and great photo though, really gets you thinking about nature capturing the action for our wonderment & enjoyment thousands of years later!!

ess & effed!