Ancient Spider Attack Fossil Found: 100-Million-Year-Old Amber Is First Of Its Kind Posted: 10/09/2012 8:54 am EDT by the Huffingtonpost “This was a male wasp that suddenly found itself trapped in a spider web,” George Poinar Jr., a professor emeritus of zoology at the university, said in a written statement. “This was the wasp’s worst nightmare, and it never ended. The wasp was watching the spider just as it was about to be attacked, when tree resin flowed over and captured both of them.”
Researchers say both the spider and the wasp belong to extinct genera. They added that the "extraordinarily rare" find may provide invaluable insight into the behavior of ancient spiders. Oregon State University's website writes: The...fossils are in a piece of amber that preserved this event in remarkable detail, an action that took place in the Hukawng Valley of Myanmar in the Early Cretaceous between 97-110 million years ago, almost certainly with dinosaurs wandering nearby. Aside from showing the first and only fossil evidence of a spider attacking prey in its web, the piece of amber also contains the body of a male spider in the same web. This provides the oldest evidence of social behavior in spiders, which still exists in some species but is fairly rare. Most spiders have solitary, often cannibalistic lives, and males will not hesitate to attack immature species in the same web. Poinar and Ron Buckley, an amber collector from Kentucky, have described the find in a paper published in the most recent issue of the journal Historical Biology. They wrote that while there are other examples of amber-trapped insects caught in spider webs, "this is the first fossil evidence of spider sociality and a fossil spider attacking prey trapped in its web." This is not the first time in recent weeks that remarkable creepy crawlies have been found fossilized in amber. In August, the Associated Press reported that scientists found three well-preserved, amber-encased ancient insects in Italy. The insects were said to be about 230 million years old -- about "100 million years older than what had been the previously known oldest critters trapped in fossilized tree resin." The AP wrote: While older insects have been found in rock fossils, these are different because they are not compressed and better preserved, said study lead author David Grimaldi, curator of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. And you can see more detail, he said. "That's the great thing about amber. You can make this incredible detailed comparison with living species." Grimaldi said.
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By Laura Arenschield The Columbus Dispatch • Tuesday August 12, 2014
The silver-haired monster with the orange fangs hadn’t been seen in Ohio in more than 60 years, and some people wondered if it had been lost forever. But this past weekend, a group of naturalists poking around the Edge of Appalachia preserve at the southern tip of Ohio peered into a burrow. There it was. Fine, slate-gray fur. Black and white stripes along its belly. As big as your palm. Jim McCormac, one of the naturalists who found the spider’s burrow, said the group knew immediately what it had discovered: A Carolina wolf spider — Hogna carolinensis — the largest wolf spider in America. “It’s the holy grail of arachnids,” said McCormac, who works for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Naturalists insist the spider is nothing to fear. “He wasn’t aggressive at all,” McCormac said. The group found the spider on Saturday during a trip to the Edge of Appalachia Preserve System, a nature preserve run by the Cincinnati Museum Center and the Nature Conservancy, in Adams County, about 110 miles south of Columbus. They’d been looking for other spiders that live underground when McCormac noticed a burrow slightly larger than his thumb. He immediately thought of the Carolina wolf spider. Two others in the group had brought a borescope, a thin, flexible tube that contains a tiny camera. When they sent it down into the hole, sure enough, the long-lost wolf spider was staring back at them on the monitor. Wolf spiders are big, hairy and usually more prevalent in the South. The Carolina wolf spider, for example, is South Carolina’s state arachnid. It’s not poisonous, but it does carry venom in its fangs to paralyze the insects it eats. It has eight eyes, lined up in three rows, and can grow 3 to 4 inches from the tip of its foreleg to the tip of its hind leg. John Howard, an Adams County resident and borescope enthusiast, said he suspects this spider was at the larger end of that scale. “If you don’t like spiders, this thing is a real horror story,” Howard said. “But if you think they’re cool, this is really cool.” It is very rare to see a baby box turtle. I believe this is an eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina).
Box turtles do not require much in the way of habitat. After hatching they usually stay close to home. One of the biggest tragedies occurs when someone picks up a turtle on the road and takes it home. Many of the turtles out in the spring are females moving to their nesting grounds. By picking up these turtles, not only are you removing the adult from the population, but her babies as well. What should you do if you see a turtle on the road? If it is possible, safely go to the turtle and move it to the far side of the road in the direction it was traveling in. If you must relocate a turtle, do it as quickly as possible, and move the turtle the shortest possible distance. Move the turtle to the nearest possible wooded area or pasture, preferably one that will not require the turtle to cross a busy road to return to where it came from. You should be aware that in some states (like Ohio) it is illegal to relocate turtles and to take them from the wild and have as a pet. This is to protect the species and native populations from disease. On Tuesday (Sept. 29) the University of Toronto Scarborough honored Fred Urquhart by creating the Urquhart Memorial Garden. In addition to discovering the migration pattern of the monarch butterfly, Urquhart and his wife Norah joined the faculty of the University of Toronto in 1961, the same school in which he graduated at the top of his class in 1935.
In celebration, milkweed was planted and monarchs were released! |
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