Scientists in England and Germany used computed tomography techniques to create a three dimensional image of a spider fossil 49 million years old.
Los expertos, de la Universidad de Manchester, en Inglaterra y de tres centros de investigación alemanes, lograron una imagen de tal nitidez que fue posible incluso identificar a qué especie pertenecía el insecto atrapado en ámbar, resina vegetal fosilizada proveniente fundamentalmente de coníferas.
"Normally when the fossil of a spider or other insect is preserved in amber, it is very difficult to see the details clearly enough to identify it. Using traditional microscopes can identify only one in ten fossil , told BBC paleontologist David Penney, one of the scientists conducting the study at the University of Manchester.
"But the new technology allows us to identify almost any specimen."
High resolution
The spider trapped in a dull piece of amber from the Baltic region, in northern Europe, an area that housed vast forests and is now one of the main sources of fossilized plant resin.
fossilized spider species is similar to current hunting spiders.
The fossil was found in the Natural History Museum in Berlin, but the 3D image was created in a laboratory of the Department of Materials Science, University of Manchester.
"We developed a novel technique to increase the contrast between the fossil and the resin that surrounds it and that makes the image resolution is significantly better, "says Dr Penney.
The fossil is a species of hunting spider genus sparassid . species of this genus can be seen today in tropical regions such as southern Europe.
"If the spider fossil was alive and we put together with some species of spiders current hunting would be impossible to distinguish with the naked eye, "the British expert.
Climate change 3D images of fossils in amber could be crucial in reconstructing the history of the Earth.
"If we study the fossil of a spider may not move forward much. But if one looks at many, many spiders can begin to piece together how our planet was in the past," explained Dr. Penney the BBC.
" moment due to climate change are in a new phase of global changes. The study of fossils may help us predict what will happen in the future "
David Penney, University of Manchester
"There are hundreds, perhaps about 600 different species of spider that have been trapped in amber. Compared with the existing species we know that northern Europe was a tropical or subtropical region, or whether there were major changes global scale. "
" Currently, due to climate change, we are in a new phase of global changes. Studies of fossil may help us predict what will happen in the future. "
German institutions participated in the research are the Museum of Zoology of Hamburg, Research Institute Senckenberg in Frankfurt, and the Humboldt University Berlin.
The study was published in the journal Naturwissenschaften (Natural Sciences).
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