518 million years ago, one tiny sea creature may have started the evolution of the fangs seen in spiders today
Researchers have identified 518-million-year-old fossils of a marine creature called Urokodia aequalis that provide the earliest evidence of chelicerae. These pincer-like limbs are the evolutionary precursors to the fangs found in modern spiders and scorpions.
Why it matters
This discovery fills a significant gap in the evolutionary history of arachnids, explaining the biological origins of one of the animal kingdom's most distinct predatory tools.
Scientists have identified the earliest known evidence of spider fangs in a 518 million-year-old fossil recovered from southern China, tracing the origin of one of the animal kingdom's most feared biological tools back to a small marine creature that lived long before spiders existed. The fossil belongs to a species called Urokodia aequalis, examined by researchers from Yunnan University and the University of Leicester using X-ray imaging techniques that revealed soft tissue structures preserved inside the rock.
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