{"id":390384,"date":"2026-01-04T05:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/390384\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T05:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:00:11","slug":"meet-chimerarachne-yingi-a-100-million-year-old-spider-like-creature-with-a-tail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/390384\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Chimerarachne Yingi, A 100-Million-Year-Old Spider-Like Creature\u2026 With A Tail"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2018, scientists described a new species of spider-like arachnid that lived 100 million years ago. Like modern spiders<\/a>, it had spinnerets, a palpal organ for sperm transfer, and four paired walking limbs. Very much unlike modern spiders, however, it also had a tail.<\/p>\n

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The study<\/a> investigated two fossils, both of which were male, to explore an old evolutionary question: how did spiders evolve, and in what order did their characteristic traits appear?<\/p>\n

Using microscopy and 3D imaging, they were able to examine the fossils\u2019 minute details. It revealed they had spinnerets and silk spigots, just like modern spiders. It also had a narrow waist, known as a pedicel, but while the overall body plan was similar to that of a spider, it still had a segmented abdomen \u2013 something we don\u2019t see in spiders.<\/p>\n

Something else we don\u2019t see in spiders is the long, whip-like appendage attached to its rear. It\u2019s thought to represent a previously unrecognized lineage of tailed spiders, or spider-like creatures. They weren\u2019t the ancestors of modern spiders, but existed alongside them. Sort of like a weird cousin (and we all have one of those).<\/p>\n

\"illustration<\/p>\n

Reconstruction of Chimerarachne yingi.<\/p>\n

The technical name for the appendage is a flagelliform telson, and it\u2019s made up of lots of tiny segments, making it very flexible. We see similar structures in today\u2019s whip scorpions<\/a>, and it has many potential uses.<\/p>\n

The tail may have been a sensory organ for navigating the environment, or could have been used as part of a defensive response to freak out would-be predators. Alternatively, it may have been a means of distraction, and could even have functioned like the tail of a lizard in breaking off as an escape strategy.<\/p>\n

As for the big question: is it a spider? The authors believe it\u2019s either the earliest known branch of true spiders, or a very close sister group. The discovery marked a big chapter in spiders\u2019 evolutionary history, demonstrating that spider traits emerged like a mosaic, blending old with new. Hence the species name, Chimerarachne yingi, as in chimera.<\/p>\n

That nuance probably isn\u2019t going to make it any more popular among arachnophobes, however.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2018, scientists described a new species of spider-like arachnid that lived 100 million years ago. Like modern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-390384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}