The idea of coming face to face with a spider-like creature unexpectedly is enough to fill any arachnophobe with horror, let alone encountering one with large, spiky legs. <\/p>\n
But that is exactly what roamed around what\u2019s currently northeast Illinois in the late Carboniferous Period about 300 million to 320 million years ago, according to a study published Friday in the Journal of Paleontology. <\/p>\n
The newly discovered long-extinct species is described as a \u201clarge spider-like arachnid\u201d with \u201cdistinctive large spines on the legs\u201d by the study\u2019s authors. They were unable to place the creature within any known arachnid order due to the specimen\u2019s lack of mouthparts, which scientists use to classify them. <\/strong> <\/p>\n \u201cWe looked at it twice and said, \u2018What are we looking at here?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n Expert fossil preparator Bob Masek first discovered the specimen in the 1980s in the fossil deposits preserved at Illinois\u2019 Mazon Creek Lagerst\u00e4tte. <\/strong>(The German word is a term paleontologists use to describe an exceptional site with many perfectly preserved fossils.) \ufeff<\/strong>However, it wasn\u2019t until 2023 that it became apparent the specimen was a newfound species and fossil collector David Douglass, who had acquired it from Masek, donated it for research. <\/p>\n Researchers then examined and photographed the fossil using a camera attached to a microscope. <\/p>\n They found that the creature was \u201cevidently something very different from any previously described arachnid,\u201d with spiny legs that resemble some modern harvestmen arachnids but with a different type of body. <\/p>\n The creature likely used its spines for defensive purposes rather than to attack other animals, similar to a hedgehog\u2019s spines today, Dunlop said. <\/p>\n \u201cIt means if something tries to bite it, it catches the spines in its mouth. \u2026 We talk about handling time, which means if you want to eat something spiny, it takes longer because you\u2019ve got to break the spines off or bite the bits that haven\u2019t got spines on it,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n \u201cWe can guess there were scorpions and other spiders around,\u201d Dunlop said, as well as primitive lizardlike animals or large amphibians that would have hunted these arachnids, but it isn\u2019t possible to know for certain. <\/p>\n