posted June 23, 2006 01:36 PM         

The fossil web was found complete with several entangled insects and other small creatures. Its discovery seems to cement arguments that spiders living in the age of dinosaurs already wove complex aerial webs like those snagging bees and butterflies today.

Experts believe the earliest spiders probably made silk to line burrows or to help pick up vibrations from prey crawling past them.

complete article --> Oldest Known Spiderweb Found in Ancient Amber

posted June 27, 2006 10:29 AM         

Trees will never seem the same again. NATURE presenter Paul Evans enters the mysterious world of the phoenix trees.

Phoenix Trees are a particular group of tree species which specialists such as Neville Fay and Ted Green from the Ancient Tree Forum, believe could live forever.

Known examples of Phoenix Tree are the lime and sweet chestnut. These trees are re-inventing themselves by layering, walking and even rooting into their own rotting trunks.

On his travels Paul meets some remarkable trees, including the Tortworth chestnut which is slowly advancing across its small corner of Gloucestershire and a lime tree in the woods at Westonbirt Arboretum which could be up to 6,000 years old.

With the help of Jill Butler from the Woodland Trust, he also discovers that phoenix trees don't always look old. But whatever their shape and size, their persistence and odd partnerships with fungi that were once thought to be harmful, could change the way we view the British landscape.



RELATED LINKS
Ancient Tree Forum