Joel Kontinen
In South Korea, paleontologists have found spider fossils with their eyes still shimmering.
“Their bodies are so soft that they typically decay entirely soon after death, leaving no trace unless they happen to end up trapped in amber. But 11 spiders from the Cretaceous period have turned up preserved in shale on the Korean Peninsula. And two of the fossils included the still-shiny traces of sparkling eyes.”
“Those glittering bits are mirror structures in the eyes called tapetums that bounce light from the back of the eye back through the retina.”
Study co-author Paul Selden, director of the Paleontological Institute at The University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum, said: “the eyes called tapetums that bounce light from the back of the eye back through the retina.”
He went on the say: “the canoe-like shape of the 110- to 113-million-year-old tapetums will help researchers place the rare spider fossils on the evolutionary tree.”
They were also covered with the remains of little crustaceans and fish, which suggest a watery environment, obviously the Flood of Noah’s days.
The work was published in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology,
Spiders are living fossils. Their forefathers looked just like today’s spiders.
Source:
Letzter, Rafi, 2019. These Ancient Spider Fossils Still Have Silvery, Shimmering Eyes Live Science (13 February).
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