The largest ever fossil of a prehistoric spider

Its fossilised features have been so perfectly preserved that experts have identified it down to the exact species and were even able to tell it was an adult female.It was found to be 165 million years old with a six inch leg span, has been discovered it spent its life on China.




The legs would have spanned up to 15cm, front to back

The Golden Orb Weaver has been named Nephila jurassica. It lived in the forests of northern China when the climate was much warmer and more tropical than today.

Prof Paul Selden, a paleontologist from Kansas University, said the females are the largest web-weaving spiders alive today with a body length of up to two inches and a leg span of six inches. Males are relatively diminutive in comparison.

They are "common and spectacular" inhabitants of tropical and subtropical regions with females weaving distinctive five foot wide webs of yellow silk that glisten like gold in sunlight.The find also suggests the climate was "warm and humid at this time".
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Via:Telegraph