A 305 million-year-old arachnid which will help scientists to understand more about the early origins of modern-day spiders has been discovered.
The new species, named Idmonarachne brasieri in honour of a University of Oxford professor who died in 2014, was found in Montceau-les-Mines, France.
Researchers from the University of Manchester, Berlin's Museum fur Naturkunde, the University of Kansas and Imperial College London worked with the Natural History Museum and the UK's Diamond Light Source to scan and examine the fossil in detail, creating a 3D model of the creature.
Russell Garwood, from the University of Manchester's School of Earth, Atmospheric & Environmental Sciences, said the fossil "occupies a key position in the evolution of spiders".
He said: "It isn't a true spider, but has given us new information regarding the order in which the bits of the anatomy we associate with spiders appeared as the group evolved."
There is currently little knowledge of the origins of spiders or their predecessors.
A group of arachnids called the uraraneids were a sister group to "true spiders", they could make silk but most likely laid it down in sheets rather than spinning it like modern spiders.
They also had a tail-like structure called a flagellum.
Analysis of Idmonarachne brasieri suggests that as the spider lineage evolved, they lost their flagellum and developed spider-like fangs and limbs.
Whilst the spiders' ancestors could probably make silk, they did not have the ability to spin it using special appendages called spinnerets.
These are what define "true spiders", and give them control over the silk and how they use it.