This Spider Died 110 Million Years Ago But Its Eyes Still Glow

A team of paleontologists were exacavating an area of shale in South Korea that dates back to the Cretaceous Era when they found the fossil — one that's incredibly rare, as it turns out.

Since they don't have rigid body structures like bones and teeths, spiders typically don't turn into fossils. Like other delicate animals, they're more likely to be found preserved in amber.

Two fossils of the extinct spider family Lagonomegopidae were found in the Korean shale. The discovery itself would have been good enough — but there's an amazing detail, and it's all in the eyes.

Well, they don't glow exactly, but they're highly reflective. This mechanism is well understood, but finding it in a delicately preserved fossil that's 110 million years old is extremely unlikely.

Paleontologist Paul Selden explained that the tapetum is, "a reflective structure in an inverted eye where light comes in and is reverted back into retina cells."

This marks the first time a fossil has ever been discovered with these glowing eyes. It isn't too surprising that this is a first, considering the tapetum is composed of soft tissue.

Modern spiders like the wolf spider, successfully use the tapetum to help maximize the amount of light in their field of vision, and in turn make them more effective hunters.

You've seen these glowing eyes firsthand, no doubt, in all sorts of animals. Cats and dogs use them to help them get around and hunt in dark areas.

Justifiably, too! They've not only discovered something never seen in a fossil before, but found 10 previously unknown spider species in the South Korean shale formation they were excavating.

Selden says that these spiders occupied the same niche that current ones do, but that they did things very differently. Whereas modern spiders in this niche jump, the ancient ones used their eyes.

“It has to be a very special situation where they were washed into a body of water. Normally, they’d float. But here, they sunk, and that kept them away from decaying bacteria," said Selden.

Face it, we'll probably never bring back long-dead species. But finding perfectly-preserved creepy crawlies from hundreds of millions of years ago, complete with spooky glowing eyes? That's not a bad consolation prize.