52m year old spider X-ray - October 30, 2007
The internal organs of a 53 million year old spider have been imaged by researchers from Belgium and the UK. After being trapped in amber the spider fell into the clutches of David Penney from Manchester University, who subjected it to ‘Very High Resolution X-Ray Computed Tomography’.
If there was any justice in the world this would have resurrected it as a rampaging super-spider. However as this was not a B-movie we are instead left with these rather impressive images that Penney thinks could revolutionise the study of amber fossils. The level of detail revealed by the new techniques could help in revising modern taxonomy and in classifying long-extinct beasts.
“This technique essentially generates full 3D reconstructions of minute fossils and permits digital dissection of the specimen to reveal the preservation of internal organs,” said Penney (press release). “My colleagues in the department of Subatomic and Radiation Physics at Ghent University in Belgium have significantly increased the resolution of the technology, bringing some quite amazing results. This is definitely the way forward for the study of amber fossils.”
This is apparently the first time the technique has been applied to fossils in amber, although some imaging work has been undertaken in Texas. A rather wonderful database of their and other images is available at Digimorph (thanks to Wired for pointing that out).
Coverage of this really quite cool story has been hampered by the fact that Penney is now in the African jungle for an indefinite period and therefore unable to get to a phone (stories have made it on to the BBC and Wired). As the press release notes, Penney actually has a slightly younger spider named after him: a 20 million year old species found by a colleague in Mexico was named Episinus penneyi in his honour.
Images: The University of Manchester / Ghent University