THE world’s oldest known spider silk has been found preserved in a piece of amber 130 million years old.
While fossils reveal that spiders were equipped with silk-spinning glands as far back as 410 million years ago, until now the record for the oldest preserved silk was only 40 million years old. That left scientists unsure of when spiders began weaving complex webs.
The single 4-millimetre strand of silk found in amber from Lebanon resembles silk from the complex aerial webs of modern orb-weaver or comb-footed spiders. Their fossils date back 190 million years, so complex weaving must be at…
