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A very sometime spider has show its face to the world for the first clock time in 49 million years , as scientist used gamey - technical school X - re method to peer through the pall of gold encase the fossilised arachnid .
The story , published on-line April 28 in the daybook Naturwissenschaften , corroborate that theancient spideris a phallus of the genusEusparassus . These arachnids , also have it off as Huntsman spiders , live in the tropics and in Southern Europe today . From leg to ramification , they can grow to a size of almost a foot ( 0.3 meters ) . Huntsman wanderer are non - aggressive and non - toxic to humans , but they can deliver a afflictive sting .
This X-ray computed tomography scan shows a fossil Huntsman spider, Eusprassus crassipes, preserved in amber.
The ancient spider fossil , which is house in the Berlin Natural History Museum , is bury in adarkened chunk of amberand is barely seeable . Using a method call X - ray computed tomography , researchers from Germany and the United Kingdom make three - dimensional images and movies of the spider inside the amber .
The resulting tenner - ray figure of speech reveal fang , oculus and " pedipalps , " or the antenna on the spider ’s face . [ See the 3 - D images ]
The same method acting has been used to revealother fossilized spiders .
One of the most terrifying parts of Huntsman spiders, their fangs, shown up-close for this ancient arachnid.
What was around when this giant star arachnid crawled what is now central Europe ? Another giant , it seems , as researchers recently cover ahummingbird - size antlived in what is now Wyoming at the metre . The ancient Huntsman fossil was recover in the 1800s . natural scientist then suspect that it was a Huntsman , but modern investigator think it unknown that such a big , dynamic spider would get trapped in tree resin . By comparing the specimen to other fossils and New spiders , however , they determined that the fossil really is a Huntsman .
" The inquiry is especially exciting because our answer show that this method acting work and that other scientifically crucial specimen in diachronic pieces of darken amber can be investigated and compared to their hold up relatives in the same way of life , " work researcher David Penney of the University of Manchester said in a assertion .
This CT scan shows the head of the fossil Huntsman spider from nearly 50 million years ago.
