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Published online 23 December 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.1331
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'Proto-spiders' made silk, but not webs
An arachnid with no talent for weaving may have excreted the first known spider silk 386 million years ago.
The earliest known spider silk was apparently made by ancient arachnids that were not really spiders and lacked the equipment to weave webs, scientists have found. These proto-spiders may have used sheets of silk to line burrows, wrap eggs or even to have sex.
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