#idmonarachne

[ostracartderms]

Idmonarachne is a small carboniferous arachnid, closely related to spiders. In this image it drinks water from a pool, with ferns and sphenophyllum plants.

For @arachnidartzine

[silod]

305 Million-Year-Old Fossil A Glimpse Into The Origins Of Spiders

Scientists have discovered a well-preserved 305 million-year-old arachnid that is "almost a spider" in France. In a new journal article, they say the fossil sheds some light on the origins of "true" spiders.

The main point of distinction: This newly discovered arachnid very likely could produce silk but lacked the spinnerets used by true spiders to, well, spin it, the scientists say. The researchers say it belongs to a "sister group" to the real-deal spiders.

The species, which they described in a new article in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, is named Idmonarachne brasieri. That's after Idmon, the father of Arachne in Greco-Roman mythology. Appropriately, Arachne was a master weaver who was transformed into a spider.

The paper says Idmonarachne "does not fit comfortably into the established orders." National Geographic reports that it "acts as a bridge between early spider-like creatures brewing up blobs of silk and the skilled weavers that we see today."

"While delicately constructed webs seem synonymous with spiders, we know from the fossil record that the ability to secrete silk came before the ability to carefully control it. Spider relatives called uraraneids, which lived from 385 million years ago through the time of Idmonarachne, could produce silk but could not build webs."