Hulleye Comes By!

A spider’s orb web is one of the most impressive architectural feats in nature, capturing morning dew and insect meals with equal grace.

But webbing rarely stands the test of time, especially over millions of years, and researchers have few samples of ancient web to study.

Now, scientists have found a 136 million-year-old piece of amber encasing pieces of web and trapped insects. The finding helps fill in the gaps of the origin of orb webs, and also indicates predatory spiders likely played a role in the evolution of flying insects. The study is detailed in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.