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Has anyone seen this video of a unique spider that may have lived well before the age of dinosaurs? The spider is unique in that it didn't have an organ for web spinning. The 305 year-old fossil was discovered in the 1980's in France and was not examined until recently because it could not be removed from the rock in which it was encased without damage. It's suggested that web-spinning spiders had an evolutionary advantage leading to their proliferation and decline of this web-less spieces. Enjoy!

Posted (edited)
  On 3/31/2016 at 10:49 PM, DrmDoc said:

Fascinating, do you know if these spiders are web producers or have the vestigial organs of web producers? If not, do you think it likely these are the web-less spider's descendants?

there are a lot of types of these crab spiders. They never seem to produce webs. Whether they can wrap their prey in silk I'm not sure. I saw one holding onto a fly the other day but I think it had picked up a dead fly. [They often crawl around bench tops. If you look at them they behave as if they know you are looking at them as they turn and will be looking at you, which seems to make them appear very intelligent. They seem to predict your movements they can only walk or jump but they always move in the right direction to get away.]

They look very much like the fossil.

In this video the crab spider appears to be suspended by a thread at 1:00 minute mark

Edited by Robittybob1
Posted
  On 3/31/2016 at 10:49 PM, DrmDoc said:

Fascinating, do you know if these spiders are web producers or have the vestigial organs of web producers? If not, do you think it likely these are the web-less spider's descendants?

 

"Thomisidae do not build webs to trap prey, though all of them produce silk for drop lines and sundry reproductive purposes"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomisidae

"Sundry reproductive processes" !?

Posted (edited)
  On 4/1/2016 at 9:35 AM, Strange said:

 

"Thomisidae do not build webs to trap prey, though all of them produce silk for drop lines and sundry reproductive purposes"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomisidae

"Sundry reproductive processes" !?

 

So Thomisidae are not descendants of these web-less spiders. Given the rarity of fossils compared to the number of animals that may have existed, I tend to believe these anomalous, singular fossils are just that--a singular, sterile mutation as we may find among present-day animals that don't have offspring. What I find most interesting about these extinct animals is how large they grew and I imagine my reaction to an actual encounter with one. Although unlikely, I here there is an African and South American spider that can reach the size of a small cat--chilling!

Edited by DrmDoc
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