There's a little "2.0 mm" line in the lower right of the picture. Looks to be maybe 1-1/2 to 2 inches long from leg to leg.
New type of spider discovered is believed to be one of the most 'evolutionary unique' on the planet
by tootired2care 12 Replies latest social current
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PaintedToeNail
Definitely hideous enough. It most likely has been around for millenia. I've done a tiny amount of research on spiders, in an effort to find some reason not to be totally freaked out by the ugly things and found out: a Huge number spider species have never been identified, many are critically endangered due to habitat loss, they are the most common things of the 'bug' variety and are responsible of most of the pest control on earth, including keeping each other in check. They have discovered an unknown type spider in NE Pennsylvania this summer, white an green. Doing the research helped me to gain a tiny amount of empathy for the gruesome things. Now I only kill them when they are in the house...a huge change for me from "Kill it! Kill! Kill!
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glenster
Spider Version of Bigfoot Emerges from Caves in the Pacific Northwest
ScienceDaily (Aug. 14, 2012) — The forests of the coastal regions from Cali-
fornia to British Columbia are renowned for their unique and ancient animals and
plants, such as coast redwoods, tailed frogs, mountain beavers and the legendary
Bigfoot (also known as Sasquatch). Whereas Bigfoot is probably just fiction, a
huge, newly discovered spider is very real. Trogloraptor (or "cave robber") is
named for its cave home and spectacular, elongate claws. It is a spider so evo-
lutionarily special that it represents not only a new genus and species, but
also a new family (Trogloraptoridae). Even for the species-rich insects and
arachnids, to discover a new, previously unknown family is an historic moment.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A team of citizen scientists from the Western Cave Conservancy and arachnolo-
gists from the California Academy of Sciences found these spiders living in
caves in southwest Oregon. Colleagues from San Diego State University found
more in old-growth redwood forests. Charles Griswold, Curator of Arachnology,
Joel Ledford, postdoctoral researcher, and Tracy Audisio, graduate student, all
at the California Academy of Sciences, collected, analyzed, and described the
new family. Audisio's participation was supported by the Harriet Exline Frizzell
Memorial Fund and by the Summer Systematics Institute at the Academy, which is
funded by the National Science Foundation.Trogloraptor hangs beneath rudimentary webs on cave ceilings. It is about
four centimeters wide when its legs are extended--larger than the size of a
half-dollar coin. Their extraordinary, raptorial claws suggest that they are
fierce, specialized predators, but their prey and attack behavior remain un-
known.The anatomy of Trogloraptor forces arachnologists to revise their understand-
ing of spider evolution. Strong evidence suggests that Trogloraptor is a close
relative of goblin spiders, but Trogloraptor possesses a mosaic of ancient, wide
spread features and evolutionary novelties.The true distribution of Trogloraptor remains unknown: that such a relatively
large, peculiar animal could elude discovery until 2012 suggests that more may
be lurking in the forests and caves of western North America.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120817092604.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trogloraptoridae