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Double Jeopardy for a Tick Wrapped in Spider Silk

Top and bottom views of the encased tick.
Top and bottom views of the encased tick. Image: J. A. Dunlop et al., 2018/Cretaceous Research

On one fateful Cretaceous day, a hapless tick managed to get itself caught in some spider silk prior to getting stuck in a sticky drop of tree sap. A seriously unfortunate day for the tick, but the discovery marked “the first time that this specific interaction between ticks and spiders has been documented in the fossil record,” according to the researchers.