Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Prehistoric spider fossil named after Alberta
"When you're that old, you can call yourself anything you want.
A 75-million-year-old spider found near Lethbridge has been named after Alberta.
The spider, measuring only about one millimetre long, was found in the 1970s preserved in a piece of amber.
It was stored in a collection of fossils at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller and examined in 2003 by visiting scientist David Penny of the University of Manchester, England.
The scientist determined it was a unique specimen and named in Orchestina Albertensis, after the province."
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Featured book: George Poinar's "Lebanese Amber: The Oldest Insect Ecosystem in Fossilized Resin" (Amazon UK | US)
Books on Amber Fossils from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US
technorati tags: spider, amber, alberta, university, manchester
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