Scientist Brings 50-Million-Year-Old Spider 'Back to Life' in 3-D

A 53-million-year-old fossilized spider found preserved in amber in an area of France known as the Paris Basin has been digitally dissected in stunning 3D using VHR-CT technique by a scientist at The University of Manchester.

In a paper published in the latest issue of the Zootaxa journal, Dr David Penney and co-authors from Ghent University in Belgium report on the use of a technique called ‘Very High Resolution X-Ray Computed Tomography’ (VHR-CT) to ‘digitally dissect’ tiny fossils and reveal the preservation of internal organs.

Dr Penney, from The School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences (SEAES), specializes in studying spiders trapped and preserved in amber tens of millions of years ago.

“This technique essentially generates full 3D reconstructions of has been used to digitally dissect a fossil in amber – and it has the potential to ‘revolutionize’ their study." Dr Penney said. The VHR-CT technique, originally used by medical research, was  minute fossils and permits digital dissection of the specimen to reveal the preservation of internal organs.

“This is definitely the way forward for the study of amber fossils. Amber provides a unique window into past forest ecosystems. It retains an incredible amount of information, not just about the spiders themselves, but also about the environment in which they lived.”

Most of the world's amber -the common name for fossil resin or tree sap -is in the range of 30–90 million years old.

Posted by Casey Kazan. Adapted from a Ghent University release.