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News > Science and Tech

Spider-Like, Scorpion-Like Creature Found in Myanmar

  • The creature has been named Chimerarachne yingi.

    The creature has been named Chimerarachne yingi. | Photo: University of Kansas

Published 7 February 2018
Opinion

“It is a key fossil for understanding spider origins,” said paleontologist Bo Wang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
 

A new spider-like creature has been discovered in Myanmar, preserved in amber during the Cretaceous period more than 100 million years ago.

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Named “Chimerarachne yingi” by scientists, scientists are unsure of whether to classify it as a spider still. With eight legs and fangs, it is like modern-day arachnids. However, it also has a long, thin tail, like whip scorpions. Still, scorpions have powerful pincers to use both for defense and offensively — which the just-found species does not.

The discovery, published in “Nature”, has since baffled scientists. While it is not exactly a spider, the 2.5 millimeters long creature is as close to it as anything that many millions of years ago could have been.

“It is a key fossil for understanding spider origins,” said paleontologist Bo Wang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“Our new fossil most likely represents the earliest branch of spiders, and implies that there was a lineage of tailed spiders that presumably originated in the Paleozoic (the geological era that ended 251 million years ago) and survived at least into the Cretaceous of Southeast Asia,” Wang added.

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