Download The Fidelity of the Amber Preservation

P R O ME T H E US P R E S S / P A L A E O N T O L O G I C A L N E T W O R K F O UN D A T I O N
Journal of Taphonomy
(TERUEL)
2011. I SSUE 4
Available online at www.journaltaphonomy.com
THE TAPHONOMIST´S CORNER
THE FIDELITY OF THE AMBER PRESERVATION
Enrique Peñalver
Instituto Geológico y
Minero de España
Ríos Rosas, 23
28003 Madrid
Spain
[email protected]
The fossil photographed corresponds to an araneomorph spider, 6.5 mm long, of the family
Dysderidae preserved in Dominican amber, approximately 20 million years old. This
amber, originated from resins of Hymenaea trees, has captured a great variety of tropical
organisms, such as leaves, flowers, fungi, scorpions, myriad arachnids and insects, swarms and
mating pairs of insects and hosts with parasites, even mammal remains, lizards and frogs. The
preservation of the arachnids and insects shows a great fidelity, sometimes including
internal anatomy preservation, which is better than that of the Baltic amber or any other
kind of amber in the world. The family Dysderidae is known as woodlouse hunters or cell
spiders. It is present in many regions of the world, but curiously there are not
representatives today in the Caribbean. The specimen shows big chelicerae in its front;
there are some reports indicating that these spiders in extant ecosystems have mildly toxic
venom that can cause local reactions in humans. The cephalothorax of these spiders is dull
red-brown and the opisthosoma or “abdomen” is gray, implying a very peculiar look, which
is clearly preserved in the specimen.
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