here is a good one

[darkart82]

you know i watch dinosour stuff on tv and ive seen 60 foot fossils of snakes. i got to thinking ,wow back in the day we had some big animals long ago, but here is a doozy , have they ever found a giant spider or tarantula fossil? is it even possible for an invert to be preserved? anybody wanna post some links for me that would be nice!!!!!!!!

 

[Arachnethegreek]

I don't know which discovery channel special I saw it on, but they had a two hour show about the earths carboniferous period when their was apx. 70% oxygen in the atmosphere which allowed Arthropods specifically to reach tremendous sizes, a dragonfly with a six foot wing span, a centipede that was like 20 feet long, and a five foot wide arachnid (not tarantula due to not being a true mygalmorphic spider. So yes, they have existed, about 500-600 million years ago, yes they have found fossil remains, which answers yes they can be preserved. The only problem is our oxygen content now. We float at roughly 30% oxygen, 69% nitrogen, and one percent mystery gas. Air samples vary by location.

 

[darkart82]

that is awesome ,now if i could see a picture of it , id be happy as hell

 

[james206]

they canty realy be preserved like a dinosaur but can get caught in sap or diff ways. look up the show "prehistoric park" they have an episode that goes on about all the giant insects andsuch

 

[thebugfreak]

i remember reading a book long time ago and scorpions were the size of housecats back then.

 

[starlight_kitsune]

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/spider-fossil/

 

[2oCHEVYo0]

Now that is just plain cool!!! Too bad it doesn't say how big they were

 

[starlight_kitsune]

you know i watch dinosour stuff on tv and ive seen 60 foot fossils of snakes. i got to thinking ,wow back in the day we had some big animals long ago, but here is a doozy , have they ever found a giant spider or tarantula fossil? is it even possible for an invert to be preserved? anybody wanna post some links for me that would be nice!!!!!!!!

Check Wired.Com in the science blog, they have some pretty good articles on different fossils.

And there've been lots of inverts preserved in amber, not so many just fossilized but they've found some.

 

[starlight_kitsune]

Now that is just plain cool!!! Too bad it doesn't say how big they were

I'll search around a bit I bet I can find out how big that spider from the fossil was.

 

[Spiral_Stairs]

My biology major friend who is doing his thesis on scorpions told me that the first scorpions were the size of todays average dog.

 

[dannyboypede]

i remember reading a book long time ago and scorpions were the size of housecats back then.

you must have read that book a really long time ago!!! i didnt even think the printing press was invented yet when scorpions were that size!