How Has the Spider Changed In ”165 Million” Years? – Hardly At All

The spider recently found in Inner Mongolia might have spun a web like this. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen

Recently, researchers found the fossil of a spider in Inner Mongolia. Dubbed Nephila jurassica to remind us that it lived at the time of the dinosaurs, it was discovered in a layer of volcanic ash assumed to be ”165 million” years old.

The most interesting feature in the spider is its size: its body is exactly as long as that of the largest modern spiders or 2.5 centimetres (1 inch). As usual, there is no evidence of Darwinian evolution.

Earlier this year, researchers found another spider in China hailing from the time of the dinosaurs. Called Eoplectreurys gertschi, it also resembles modern-day spiders in every way.

Source:

Choi, Charles Q. 2011. Largest Fossil Spider Found in Volcanic Ash. Yahoo! News (20 April).