Study On Araneae In Burmese Amber

Arthropod is a kind of metazoan with the most abundant species diversity on the earth,which can be divided into four subclasses: Chelicerata,Myriapodia,Crustacea and Insecta.Due to the protection of hard exoskeleton,arthropod fossils are more abundant and well preserved than other animal groups.These fossils provide important materials and evidences for the study of arthropod evolution.This project focuses on Arachnida fossils,which are second only to insects in number.One of the largest sources of these fossils is amber.Based on the detailed description of the external morphology of 8 spider fossils in 7 Burmese amber specimens,the taxonomic study is carried out,which provides new materials for the species diversity of spider in Burmese amber in Cretaceous and enriches the fossil record.In addition,this study is the first time to study the internal structure of the spider's body by using micro CT technology for non-destructive scanning and three-dimensional reconstruction.It is the first time to discover the internal soft tissue structure of Araneae fossils in Burmese amber,including the muscle tissue,supraesophageal and subesophageal ganglion,and the suspected spinneret structure,which opens a new window for the study of soft tissue structure of Cretaceous Araneae fossils,and the results were compared with the existing samples which provides conclusive evidence for the preservation of soft tissue structure such as muscle in Burmese amber.