JUMPING SPIDER

This piece of amber contains a jumping spider from the family Salticidae. These spiders take their name from the way they jump onto their prey, leaping up to 50 times their own length. In addition to the four eyes at the front of their heads, they also have four small eyes with flawless structures in immediate proximity to these, which they use to identify their prey. Just like their present-day counterparts, jumping spiders that lived millions of years ago had a complete, flawless structure. And over millions of years, no change has taken place in that structure. The 25-million-year amber illustrated is proof of that.