100-million-year-old fossilized spider attack found

A picture of an over 100 million-year-old fossil, discovered by experts at Oregon State University, that shows an attack between a spider and a wasp. / CBS Seattle/Oregon State University

Like an old photograph, a 100-million-year-old fossil has captured something extraordinary from time: A battle involving a spider attacking its prey.

The fossil was found by experts from Oregon State University, CBS Seattle reported.

"The extraordinarily rare 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," the university's website announced through a press release.

According to George Poinar, Jr., OSU zoology professor emeritus, the spider had the wasp under its grasp and was about to make it food.

However, Poinar said: "The wasp was watching the spider just as it was about to be attacked, when tree resin flowed over and captured both of them."

According to the press statement, the tree resin is known for being able to "flow over insects" and "preserving them in near perfection before it later turns into a semi-precious stone." The types of spider and wasp captured in the fossil are now regarded as extinct.

[johnniewinesap]

the fact that spiders and wasps are still eating each other today in spite of 100 million years of history and evolution would seem to say that evolution does not work. if it did, spiders and wasps would have evolved to feeding on something other than each other as they did 100 million years ago.
more science malarkey.

[offerPop5796249]

You people are so stupid. What does mocking religion have to do with this article? Stay on topic.

[Topkitty27]

I think that a dinosaur sneezed after eating some tree sap and it nailed a couple of bugs minding their own business. Prehistoric dino boggers!!!!!

[dman6015]

Hmmm...amber encasement. Sounds like something out of a 'Fringe' episode.

[donkeyrokman]

I'm a lifetime fossil collector. I also have more than half a brain. The odds that this bit of amber actually depicts an "active" attack are so astronomical as to verge on the ridiculous. The only way this could have happened is if time stopped for everything EXCEPT the tree sap. Tree sap movement is measured in days, not hours, not minutes, and certainly not milliseconds. Plus, sap is not liquid enough to envelop lightweight insects whilst leaving their relative positions intact.

This is simply a fluke. Nothing more. But it is also, apparently, a great way to drum up a little publicity for the "experts" at Oregon State U. They know better, and should be ashamed.

[Cheops75]

That is what I thought as well Donkeyrokman. Even though I have scant to nil knowledge of amber viscosity. It would be amiss to find a spider attacking a wasp in mid action whilst the amber slowly flows over them. Maybe they were both having a "heart attack"?

Seriously, we need a second academic opinion to validate this article.

[tafhdyd]

What a bunch of hooey. Anyone who listens to Fox news and the religious right knows the earth is only 6000 years old.

[Kimmybird1]

I teach science and just on Monday my class and I watched as a spider wrapped up a wasp that had flown into my class. The sizes were reversed though, the spider was much smaller than the wasp. How cool to find this fossil on line to share with my class. Thanks!!

[menon562003]

wow. really? small spider kills big wasp. I mean both are aggressive creatures arent they. I used to teach science too.
These poisonous venomous creatures fascinate me. We so advanced and yet they can kill us with one bite or at the very least discomfort us.
Yeps spiders are around the top in my list of fascinating creatures.
As a boy I remember walking with my dad in one of our public gardens. Suddenly there was a loud shout and two people came running our way. They were being chased by a swarm of hornets. We were close by but the hornets did not bother us. The next day the newspaper said that one of the persons ( a female ) had died of hornet stings. The man had jumped into a pond and saved himself.
Apparently they had disturbed the hornets'nest

[nicmart]

And therefore the Christian Bible is a hoax.

[npbstl]

OMG...The earth is that old ? I was told that it is only 9,000 years old !
(and it's flat LOL)