Scientists find 'giant' dinosaur spider fossil in Australia
If you thought Australia's spiders were scary, wait until you see the prehistoric version. King88bet
Scientists have found a fossilised giant trapdoor spider in New South Wales, only the fourth specimen of its kind to be found in Australia. king88bet login alternatif
The creature would have roamed and hunted in the surrounding tempats which were once a lush rainforest, researchers said in a recently filed report. Article Title with Blogger Published Link as Backlink
Last year, scientists unearthed fossils of the rainforest tempat from millions of years ago, teeming with specimens including plants, trapdoor spiders, giant cicadas and wasps.
Now the tempat is a grassland region known as McGraths Flat.Researchers have named the spider fossil ‘Megamonodontium mccluskyi'. It would have lived in the Miocene period 11m to 16m years ago.
"Only four spider fossils have ever been found throughout the whole continent, which has made it difficult for scientists to understand their evolutionary history," said palaeontologist Matthew McCurry of the University of New South Wales and the Australian Museum.
"That is why this discovery is so significant, it reveals new information about the extinction of spiders and fills a jarak in our understanding of the past.
"The closest living relative of this fossil now lives in wet forests in Singapore through to Papua New Guinea.
"This suggests that the grup once occupied similar environments in bermainland Australia but have subsequently gone extinct as Australia became more arid."
The spider was found among many other Miocene fossils. In some of them, the fossils were so well preserved that subcellular structures could be made out.
"Scanning electron microscopy allowed us to studi minute detils of the claws and setae on the spider's pedipalps, legs and the bermain bodi," said virologist Michael Frese of the University of Canberra.
The detils meant scientists could confidently place it near the kekinian Monodontium, or trapdoor spider.
However, it is five times larger than its kekinian day relatives. Megamonodontium mccluskyi's bodi is 23.31 millimetres long - that is just over an inch.
