Fossil hunters in Korea discovered long-dead spiders preserved in rock. And to the delight of scientists, the arachnids’ eyes are still reflective — some 110 million years after the creatures died.
It’s rare for insects — which are far more brittle than shelled sea creatures — to become fossilized in rocks. But for reasons still unknown, a couple of these spiders did fossilize, and the unique shape of their eye structures continue to reflect light — even in their petrified form.
The reflective eye structure is called a tapetum, and it’s often used by creatures who hunt in the dark.
“So, night-hunting predators tend to use this different kind of eye,” Paul Selden, director of the Paleontological Institute at Kansas University’s Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum, said in a statement. “This was the first time a tapetum had been in found a fossil. This tapetum was canoe-shaped — it looks a bit like a Canadian canoe.” Read more…
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