1.5 crore year old trapdoor spider fossil found in Australia 5 times bigger than today’s spiders

The fossil of a giant ‘trapdoor’ spider, about 15 million years old, has been discovered in Australia. This is the world’s first fossil, which belongs to the large brush-footed family of trapdoor spiders. It is called Barychelidae. It has been told that this species lived in the Miocene 1 to 16 million years ago. The discovered fossil has been called Megamonodontium mccluskyi. The spider is named after Dr. Simon McCluskey, who discovered its specimen. This is not the first time that a giant spider fossil has been discovered in Australia. Three big fossils have already been discovered.

Paleontologist Dr. Matthew McCurry of New South Wales University has examined this discovery. He has shared this information on social media platform ‘X’. Study in Zoological Journal published Has been done

The study says that the spider fossil was found in McGraths, New South Wales. The rocks found here contain good amount of iron. It is reported that the discovered fossil is 5 times larger than the existing species. There are approximately 300 species of brush-footed trapdoor spiders alive today. These spiders stay in their holes most of the time.

Photo Credit: academic.oup

Scientists say that this discovery is important because it will provide information about the extinction of big spiders. So far, 4 fossils of big spiders have been found in Australia. This means that a good number of them must have been in that area millions of years ago.

It has also been told in the study that the closest species of this spider was found in the dense and water-rich forests of Singapore. It is estimated that they may have become extinct in Australia due to the weather there, but was there any other reason also? This may be unveiled in the coming days.