The largest fossilized spider ever found was discovered in Inner Mongolia, China and setting the new world record for the Largest Fossil Spider. This new species called Nephila jurassica, a 165 million-year-old golden orb weaver whose legs spanned an astonishing 15cm.
The fossil’s well-preserved state gave scientists enough details to identify it as an adult female Nephila jurassica where the common name of the arachnid is the golden orb weaver.
Golden orb spiders can weave the largest webs—creating golden silk discs almost five feet in diameter that are large enough to catch bats and birds.
Paul Selden, director of the Paleontological Institute at the University of Kansas, told Live Science that environmental change must have occurred in Inner Mongolia at some point, for golden orb weavers are now found in tropical environments.
He also said that the insect world was very different for these spiders. "There were many large or medium-sized flying insects around at that time on which it would have fed indiscriminately," said Selden to Live Science.
Additionally, Selden and his colleagues are interested in sexual dimorphism of Nephila jurassica. Female modern golden orb weavers are giant in comparison to their male partners. Selden and his colleagues wish to find a fossil of a male golden orb spider to study the differences.
The previous record was a Guinness world record for the oldest fossil spider trapped in amber has been dated at 125-135 million years old. It is from the family linyphiidae, and was discovered in Lebanon and analysed by David Penney and Paul Selden (both from University of Manchester, UK).
Details of the findings were published on April 20 in Biology Letters.
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