University of Manchester paleontologist David Penney has been able to establish the age of a prehistoric spider trapped and preserved in amber for twenty million years, according to a cable by EFE press agency. Penney found the fossil – which measures 4 x 2cm – during a visit to the Amber Museum in the DR. Since his discovery two years ago, the expert has been able to extract small drops of blood to establish the spider’s age, also allowing him to determine how, when, and where it died. It is believed that this is the first time that blood has been extracted from a spider caught in amber and experts are confident that they can establish the DNA – just like in Jurassic Park, a film that shows how scientists are able to reproduce dinosaurs from DNA preserved in insects. Penney believes this spider was walking near a tree top twenty million years ago when it was hit on the head by resin, was caught and died. “By analyzing the spider’s body in relation to the small drops of blood in the amber, we could determine how it died, in what direction it was walking and even how fast it was moving,” said the scientist.