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Spider-web silk from the Early Cretaceous

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  • Samuel Zschokke

    (Section of Conservation Biology, University of Basel)

Abstract

The use of viscid silk in aerial webs as a means to capture prey was a key innovation of araneoid spiders and has contributed largely to their ecological success1. Here I describe a single silk thread from a spider's web that bears glue droplets and has been preserved in Lebanese amber from the Early Cretaceous period for about 130 million years. This specimen not only demonstrates the antiquity of viscid silk and of the spider superfamily Araneoidea, but is also some 90 million years older than the oldest viscid spider thread previously reported in Baltic amber from the Eocene epoch2.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Zschokke, 2003. "Spider-web silk from the Early Cretaceous," Nature, Nature, vol. 424(6949), pages 636-637, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:424:y:2003:i:6949:d:10.1038_424636a
    DOI: 10.1038/424636a
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