Spider Mum Frozen In Time By Fossilised Amber Still Protecting Her Young 99 Million Years Later

This 99-million-year-old spider mum frozen in time by solidified amber is the oldest piece of evidence showing that ancient spiders kept a close eye on their hatchlings.

Four separate chunks of amber were mined in northern Myanmar revealing a sprawling world of spider hatchlings and an ancient spider mum cradling its egg sack with its long legs.

The researchers at Capital Normal University in Beijing, China, Xiangbo Guo, Paul A. Selden and Dong Ren, found that the ancient spider is a member of the now-extinct Lagonomegopidae family.

Credit: Xiaoran Zuo/Newsflash
A female of the now-extinct Lagonomegopidae spider family guards her egg sac in a tree cavity.

The adult spider and an estimated 100 hatchlings were encased in the amber as they roamed the planet netting prehistoric insects during the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago).

The female spider was found in a typical protective position that modern-day spiders take up when protecting their young from predators.

The spider’s position led the researchers to state: “Adult lagonomegopid females probably built and then guarded egg sacs in their retreats or nests, and the hatched spiderlings may have stayed together with their mother for some time.”

According to the study: “The large spider is covered with emulsion-like impurities, the dorsal parts of cephalothorax and abdomen are somewhat broken, and some of the leg podomeres are missing.

“Its large size, peg teeth on the promargin of the chelicera, unmodified pedipalps, spineless legs and trichobothria on the leg tarsus indicate that it belongs to Lagonomegopidae, and is an adult female.”

Credit: Xiangbo Guo, Paul Selden, Dong Ren/Newsflash
Egg sac in Burmese amber.

In addition, the amber also preserved an estimated 12 prelarvae and their egg membranes, which were wrapped in the egg sac’s silk.

In the second chunk of amber, the researchers found 24 spiderlings, which were mostly broken and deformed during the preservation process.

The other chunks contained an estimated 26 and 34 ancient baby spiders, respectively.

As all the young spiders were the same size, the study concluded that it is almost certain that they were siblings and that their mum was keeping a careful eye on them when they were frozen in time by the amber.


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In addition to the spiders, the amber chunks also captured several other insects including an ancient cockroach and an ancient wasp.

The researcher used CT scans to identify the spiders and uncover details about the minuscule hatchlings.

The amber chunks and the ancient spiders inside are being kept at the Key Laboratory of Insect Evolution and Environmental Changes at the College of Life Sciences at Capital Normal University in Beijing, China.

The study was published under the title ‘Maternal Care in Mid-Cretaceous Lagonomegopid Spiders’ in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.


To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below.
Story By: Peter Barker, Sub-Editor: William McGee, Agency:  Newsflash

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