Sandrine Ceurstemont, video producer A mysterious ancient
specimen at the Berlin Natural History Museum has finally been
identified thanks to the latest computer imaging technology (see
video above). The spider, which was trapped in amber 49 million
years ago, can barely be seen under a microscope since the
hardened resin has darkened and cracked over time. But David
Penney and his team from the University of Manchester were able
to peer inside it using X-ray computed tomography (CT),
revealing the animal in a high level of detail. Before this
analysis, the specimen was thought to be the oldest example of a
huntsman spider. However many challenged this claim since the
spiders move quickly and are seldom caught in amber. Now the 3D
images have confirmed its identity by comparing the specimen to
living spiders. "We were able to show that the fossil is
unquestionably a huntsman spider and belongs to a genus called
Eusparassus, which lives in the tropics and also arid regions of
southern Europe today, but evident