Spider in Baltic Amber
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
-
- Posts: 693
- Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:42 pm
- Location: South Beloit, Ill
Spider in Baltic Amber
Spider in Baltic Amber
What does a 40 million year old spider look like? Remarkably the same as the spiders we see today. My analysis sees a full abdomen, indicating a actively feeding subject at death. Death would have been by asphyxiation. Note a fog and many small bubbles in the amber under the abdomen. I believe this to be the last exhalations of air from the book lungs in that location.
Luckily two air bubbles left the legs and carapace before solidification. Some nice details can be seen though the amber. The spiked circular thing in front of the mouth area is just the face on view of the second pedipalp tarsal segment. The spinnerets show up well but unfortunately, I can detect no silk drag line. One large silk spigot is visible. There are good details in the leg segments and claws. Unfortunately, there are no details of the chelicerae.
Walt
53 images stacked on both images, each using different lighting. Amber in air.
Both images 9x on camera sensor. 6.3x objective. Horizontal F.O.V. approx. 2mm
Canon 50D on Leitz Ortholux microscope.
Zerene and Photoshop processing
-
- Posts: 693
- Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:42 pm
- Location: South Beloit, Ill
- carlos.uruguay
- Posts: 5358
- Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2012 8:05 pm
- Location: Uruguay - Montevideo - America del Sur
- Contact: