Researchers from the University of Manchester, along with scientists from the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, have successfully created a virtual model of a 410-million-year-old arachnid.
Approximately 300 to 400 years ago, the spiders were common around the world, but not they're extinct, according to a press release issued by the University of Manchester.
A video released by the researchers shows for the first time how trigonotarbid walking on Earth while looking for food.
The researchers were able to create the video by using Blender software, according to the release. Simulations were once considered impossible to create, but now they can be designed easily with some assistance from the software.
"When it comes to early life on land, long before our ancestors came out of the sea, these early arachnids were top dog of the food chain," said Russell Garwood, a paleontologist in the University of Manchester, according to the release.
Jason Dunlop, curator at the Museum für Naturkunde, said that when work on fossil arachnids first started, they were simply hoping to come up with a sketch of the spider.
"When I started working on fossil arachnids we were happy if we could manage a sketch of what they used to look like; now we can view them running across our computer screens," Jason Dunlop, curator at the Museum für Naturkunde, said, according to the release.
The researchers decided to make a virtual model of the spider as part of collection of papers, exploring the virtual re-creation of fossils.
The fossils were collected from a rock called the Rhynie chert.
Arachnids include spiders and scorpions.
Details on the study were published in the Journal of Paleontology.
"For me, what's really exciting here is that scientists themselves can make these animations now, without needing the technical wizardry, and immense costs, of a Jurassic Park-style film," Dunlop said.
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