National Geographic: UC professor discusses ancient spiders

A University of Cincinnati biology professor spoke to National Geographic about the recent discovery of spider fossils in South Korea.

The discovery by the Korea Polar Research Institute suggests ancient spiders had reflective eyes like many of today’s spiders.

If you shine a flashlight in your grassy back yard, you’re likely to see tiny eyes shining back at you. These are the glowing eyes of wolf spiders, which have an iridescent lens called a tapetum that reflects light.

According to National Geographic, paleontologists discovered nearly a dozen inch-long fossils of ancient spiders dating back more than 106 million years during the Cretaceous Period. These spiders, too, have reflective lenses that capture more light for animals that are active at night. Their findings were published in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology.

“These fossils are extraordinary,” UC biology professor Nathan Morehouse told National Geographic.

“It’s always a thrill when something of the visual system is preserved,” he said. “More exciting to me and other vision scientists is the glimpse that the tapetum offers into the lifestyle of these ancient animals. They were likely nocturnal hunters!”

Morehouse has been studying the vision and behavior of spiders, particularly jumping spiders, in UC’s McMicken College of Arts and Sciences. He is using a National Science Foundation grant to study spider vision around the world.

Featured image at top: UC biology professor Nathan Morehouse uses micro-spectrophotometry to measure how the photoreceptor cells in spiders absorb light. Photo/Jay Yocis/UC Creative Services