The discovery provides insight into the evolution of this unusual behavior in present-day spiders.
Scientists have discovered a new prehistoric species of spider with a genius strategy for hiding from its predators.Spiders are not well preserved in the fossil record because of their soft exoskeletons, so our understanding of these ancient arachnids is fairly limited. But in rare cases, spiders can become trapped in various tree resins, such as amber and copal, preserving their bodies for millennia.
But why would spiders want to pretend to be ants in the first place?'Ants are particularly good creatures for spiders to pretend to be many animals find ants distasteful or dangerous to eat,' Poinar said in a statement. 'Ants are aggressive in their own defense—they have a strong bite as well as a stinging venom, and they can call in dozens of nestmates as allies.
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