Burgess Shale yields first spiders/scorpions

Burgess Shale have yielded another ground-breaking fossil find. This time its the oldest known ancestor of today’s spiders and scorpions.

Mollisonia plenovenatrix is over 500 million years old. It had large eyes to spot prey. Long limbs propelled it across the sediments. Its head was like a modern multi-tool with limbs that could sense, grasp, crush and chew. The tiny pair of structures in front of its mouth are the same pincers on all members of the family Chelicerata. That’s 115,000 different species, and here is the one that started it all. See ----->Theft from Burgess Shale