The world’s oldest known spider web has been discovered on a beach in Sussex, England, trapped inside an ancient chunk of amber.

Scientists found the rare amber fossil in December, and have now confirmed that it contains remnants of spider silk spun roughly 140 million years ago by an ancestor of modern orb-weaving spiders. After slicing the amber into thin sections and examining each piece under a high-powered microscope, the researchers discovered that the ancient silk threads share several features common to modern spider webs, including droplets of sticky glue used to hold the web together and capture prey.

According to paleobiologist Martin Brasier of Oxford University, the gooey droplets suggest that spiders were starting to spin webs that were better adapted for catching flying insects. “Interestingly, a huge radiation took place in flying insects and bark beetles about 140-130 million years ago,” Brasier wrote in an email to Wired.com. “So we may be seeing a co-evolution of spiders and insects here.”

The new discovery is the first example of an amber fossil from the early Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs like spinosaurs and psittocosaurs roamed the Earth.



“Silk is a relatively delicate material and it is rarely preserved in the fossil record, except when entombed in amber,” Brasier and colleagues wrote about the discovery in the upcoming December issue of the Journal of the Geological Society. The researchers think pieces of organic material, including the spider silk, became embalmed during a severe wildfire, when amber resins seeped out from the charred bark of coniferous trees and were eventually swept away by flooding.

In addition to ancient spider silk, the amber chunk contains well-preserved soil microbes, including the oldest known examples of actinobacteria, a common type of bacteria that plays a major role in soil formation.

Image 1: A spider and web trapped in amber, Mila Zinkova/Wikipedia Commons. Image 2: Light micrograph of new amber fossil showing a web of tiny silk threads, plus droplets of sticky glue. Courtesy of Martin Brasier.
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Gynandromorphic butterfly!
So one of the coolest things ever happened this past saturday. A gynandromorphic Hypolimnas misippus (danaid eggfly) eclosed at the Insectarium!


I have read about gynandromorphy while in college and I am just giddy to have been onsite when one appeared.

A gynandromorph is an animal that is literally half male and half female – directly down the center. This occurs during the development of the zygote when the chromosomes don’t split correctly. Basically, due to non-disjunction, one side of the zygote develops with an X (females are X or XY) and the other develops with an XXX (males are XX or in unusual cases XXX).

The more dramatic specimens are those where the species has sexual dimorphism – so either side is dramatically different (like my little danaid eggfly). If you look closely at the picture above you can see that the line down the center of the body – the right side (female) is lighter in color and the abdomen is a touch longer.
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The underside of the right (female) wing.



The underside of the left (male) wing.

*squeee!*
community.livejournal.com/entomology

Seapig

This is some kind of weird deep sea sea-cucumber.

Ajolote

Not to be confused with the Axolotl (which comes later) this is an Ajolote, which is a freaky long retile found in Mexico with only two legs.

Aye-Aye

looking like a hellspawn, the aye-aye is a native of Madagascar (where you find the cute lemurs).. it uses it’s extremely long finger to tap out and find grubs burrowing in wood and then uses the same digit to dig them out…

Chinese and Japanese Giant Salamander

Chinese Version

Japanese Version

both grow up to about 2 metres long… are predators which eat fish and crustaceans..

Pygmy Jerboa

cute as hell, they’re desert rodents which are found in north africa and asia.. see one of them hop around here => Jerboa!!

Giant Isopod

looking like a giant roach or worse, they inhabit the deep atlantic and thankfully, not the beaches off the east coast..

Thorny Devil Lizard

resident of australia, it lives in the desert and eats ants.. the thorns prevent it from being eaten by other creatures

Hagfish

it’s an ugly fish.. but what makes it more disgusting is the huge amounts of slime it can produce..

Hairy Frog

native to central africa… it’s weirdness is.. that.. it’s a frog.. with hair!! ’nuff said

Human-Faced Carp

some hobbyist in Korea cross-bred a couple of types of fish and this appeared..

Sea Devil

some kind of deep sea angler-fish with a huge expandable stomach… it has lots of hair-like things which may be used to attract its prey…

Proboscis Monkey

the male of this species has this idiotic nose… but this doesn’t help this Borneo native much as it’s now considered critically endangered

Goblin Shark

looking like your worse deep sea nightmare, the goblin shark is real..

face your fears here => Goblin Shark chomping on some guy

Purple Frog

looking like The Blob of the frog family, this Indian frog lives underground most of its life… but it just looks… obese..

Pygmy Marmoset

native of brazil, the marmoset is one of the smallest monkeys on the planet.. aren’t the babies adorable?

Sea Dragon

a type of seahorse, they look very pretty, yet freaky..

Tarsier

insect-eating creatures with eyes bigger than its brain, the huge eyes are for nocturnal hunting… the eyes are so big the skull is the same size as each of the eyes.. living in south-east asia, they’re also critically endangered

Axolotl

this weird creature is here because it can reach maturity without metamorphosis… and when it does, it turns into a salamander-like creature without the frilly gills.. they usually do not.. they can also regrow a complete new limb if they are injured..

Angora Rabbit

all i can say is.. wtf??

Blobfish

again, this is another wtf? a deep sea fish… which is.. blobbish…

Candiru

the fabled “vampire fish” of the amazon… legends say it swims up the penis of unsuspecting victims and lodges itself inside!!

Giant Soft-Shelled Turtle

growing up to about 2 metres, it’s critically endangered…

Dumbo Octopus

a deep deep sea octopus.. cute isn’t it?

Olm

it’s a blind amphibian found in the subterranian caves of southern europe.. looks kinda gross…

Rosy-Lipped Batfish

why is it wearing lipstick? ahahaha!! found in waters off costa rica, near the cocos island, it’s one of the weirdest things around

Saiga Antelope

okay.. i’ve put it here because it looks like Alf… but it is found around mongolia and the steppes region.. sadly, it’s critically endangered..

Star-nosed mole

weird as heck, it uses the “fingers” of its nose to feel things… especially its earthworm prey.. found in North America

Turtle Frog

looks like an unholy union of frog and soft shelled turtle.. the turtle frog is found in southern part of western australia..

Weta

found in new zealand, one of the biggest insects around..  it’s classified under the genus Deinacrida.. which means.. Terrible Grasshopper… oh ya.. it bites.. and it’s jaws are HUGE!!

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