How Did Spiders Come to Be?
WouterHow did spiders come to be? Spiders are one of the earliest animals to make their home on land. They’ve evolved for hundreds of millions of years, and are likely to continue to stake their claim to land for hundreds more. They have the unique ability to spin silk. They use a series of tiny spigots to produce their silk.
There are more than 45,000 known species. They’re divided into 114 families. In terms of appearance, they can be classified as true spiders, arachnids, and scorpions.
The first definite spiders were thin-waisted arachnids with abdominal segmentation. These animals were also equipped with silk-producing spinnerets. Some of these creatures were able to form maze-like webs to capture prey.
The first known species to evolve into spiders was Attercopus. Attercopus lived 80 million years ago. These early spiders didn’t have a venom gland. Instead, they had a pair of rigid hairs. These spigots would eventually develop into the spinnerets that are found on modern day spiders.
Another spider-like fossil is Megarachne servinei. This giant arachnid was originally described as a spider. However, it’s now thought that the arachnid represents another type of ancient spider.
New fossils have been found in Gilboa, N.Y., and they include a 0.4-inch long arachnid. The fossil was found in an amber that’s been stored for over 100 million years.
These new fossils reveal a link between arachnids and their long-extinct ancestors. It’s possible that the ancient arachnid still lives in southeast Asia.
