Spider web in Late Cretaceous French amber (Vendee): The contribution of 3D image microscopy

Late Cretaceous amber from La Garnache (France, Vendee) contains filamentous networks that have all the characteristics of spider webs. Using methods of classic and confocal microscopy, the web architecture and the thread structure are described. The geometry of the webs preserved in amber is presented in 3D imaging. Unlike most of the spider webs identified in amber, there are no regular radiating webs growing in two dimensions characteristic of the well-known orb web. A number of the characters would correspond to the apparently irregular organization of cob-type web or sheet web. By using confocal microscopy, we can highlight the preserved autofluorescence of spider silk proteins and new characters are proposed to identify the spider webs or fragments of webs in amber. (C) 2014 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.