Amber spider-glass - April 09, 2008
About 40 million years ago this arachnid went out for a walk and made the mistake of blundering into amber.
It is only the second example of Dicranopalpus ramiger, a type of harvestman rather than a true spider, to be acquired by London’s Natural History Museum (press release).
“Complete harvestmen are rare finds. It’s more common to find just the legs in amber, where a trapped leg or two were sacrificed so the harvestman could escape the sticky resin, says Andrew Ross, the museum’s fossil invertebrates expert.
“This is a particularly impressive example because all its legs are present and still attached to the body.”
The bug was noticed by Terence Collingwood, who runs a fossil shop in Rochester. “I buy bulk lots of amber to sell, and I have to search through them carefully looking for unusual items that other people may have missed,” he explains. “Finding this was pure chance, but I realised straight away that it was something special.”
More on this from the BBC.
Image: copyright NHM