Researchers have found trapped
in amber a rare dinosaur-age scene of a spider attacking a wasp caught in its
web.
The piece of amber, which
contains 15 intact strands
of spider silk, provides the first fossil evidence of such an assault, the
researchers said. It was excavated in a Burmese mine and dates back to the
Early Cretaceous, between 97 million and 110 million years ago.
"This juvenile spider was
going to make a meal out of a tiny
parasitic wasp, but never quite got to it," George Poinar, Jr., a
zoology professor at Oregon State University, said in a statement.
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