Giant Spiders Could Be a Result of Global Warming
Scientists studying northeastern Greenland’s hairy, meat-eating wolf spiders have discovered every arachnophobe’s worst nightmare.
It appears that as the Earth has been warming and summers have been getting longer, the 8-legged hunters have been steadily growing larger and more numerous. And it’s likely that other creepy-crawly species around the world could be growing larger too.
The species that was studied, Pardosa glacialis, can grow to as long as 1.6 inches. For now. But the study revealed that the average size of the spiders had grown by 2% over the last ten years. That’s a significant growth rate, according to researchers.
The precise cause of the trend is still a mystery, but the growth was strongly correlated with hotter, longer summers. For instance, in years when spring came 30 days earlier, many spiders grew exoskeletons which were 10% thicker than usual. Translated for the squeamish: that means the spiders were bigger, hairier and more difficult to squash.
And they aren’t just getting larger, they’re increasing their numbers too. The study also discovered that most of the species growth happened among females. Since larger females tend to produce more offspring, that means more spiders overall.
Scientists speculate that the reasons for the enlarged, more populous arachnids may have to do with an extended hunting season. Their prime hunting season occurs during the summer months, and the longer warm period means more time to feast. Another hypothesis could be that the extended summers allow the spiders to molt more often.
More research needs to be conducted to determine if the spiders are actually being born larger. If so, then the trend could be evolutionary rather than just seasonal.
Whatever the cause, the news highlights how many of the effects of global warming could be unexpected, and it’s not yet clear how the larger, more numerous spiders could effect local ecosystems. Or human psychology, for that matter.
Source: Nationalgeographic.com
Image Credit: xoque at Flickr under a Creative Commons License
I’m so proud of everyone who does their own investigating and doesn’t just believe whatever they read. No matter what side you end up on, I think everyone should be able to defend their beliefs.
Long live the Internet.
I believe global warming is hyped up much like this “swine flu”. It’s totally not a big deal. But, if you let the media run with it, it’s a “human sacrifice dogs and cats living together mass hysteria!” kind of thing.
[...] photo：Mundo Poco [...]
i did’nt understan why do those animals cause global warming?
It seems earth is changing, not for our better tho, but for creatures. Perhaps mother nature wants to get rid of us. With all of mans tampering and experiments, its no surprise our climate is reverting back to eons ago.
It may be the monsters of Hollywood are not so much fiction now. I think we have many nasty surprises ahead of us. Im a scientist, trained in earth science and animals.
I have noted that some spiders have seemed larger over recent autumns, notably the tegenaria species. That’s not to say it’s global warming, nor is it to say anything other than I have happened to have coincidentally had some big spiders in my flat in recent years.
Weather patterns quite literally have ‘patterns’. And I doubt we have anything much to worry about.
I have, however, noticed unusually large pholcid spiders indoors, during summer (which I do find unusual). Mouse spiders are seemingly abundant this year too. I’ve also found the occasional woodlouse spider indoors this year too.
Maybe I’m looking out for these animals, as I’m a spider enthusiast, but I have to admit the last 18 months have been a spider lover’s wonderland!
It is no wonder, the great, lovable, once monogamous, and admirable family man, and high calorie intake, high sugar consuming, Hulking American Neanderthal, the product of a short 200 year evolution to his current, monumental size, – no bigger bones have been found!- balks at accepting the idea that he alone may causing even more damage to Mother Earth! It is an embarrassing state of affairs! His evolution, requiring the richest farmland on earth, and 80% of the world’s resources all these years, results in an unsustainable beast of grand proportion, strength, richest diet on earth, requiring 6 acres of good farmland for his beef consumption alone, and all the oil the OPEC nations, and the Saudis can ship, and still, not enough to satiate his great appetite! Sadly, however, he is in a losing battle against the faster, smaller, smarter, vegan Asian! This creature, in as little as the last few decades, has taken his “Smoke Stack Industries”, his “Manufacturer to the World” status, even his magnificent car industry, and his economy from him and now challenges his supplies of oil world wide with the “Yuan” a stable money form not manipulated, inflated or deflated, and becoming trusted in International Trade, and after his dishonest trading of bad bonds on the world scene, and his manipulation of the “fiat” dollar by government printing sprees, without material backing, thus devaluing the dollar worldwide, dishonest indeed, he stands to lose again as the “Yuan” replaces the American Dollar world-wide as currency of fair, honest, commerce. His scholastic ability has also come into question, with his own President admitting shamefully his schools rates 32nd in the world, no longer first place ! The Asians, especially the Chinese have championed scholastic achievement over sports such as foot ball, baseball, hockey, the intellect over brawn, and have more post graduates with IQ’s over 130, and Multi-lingual in most cases, and in the Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering to add to their prowess, than the Great hulking American Neanderthal has high-school students this year! India, a land of cricket players and vegan to the core, scores similarly against our Great Hulking Soda imbibing, meat eating high calorie intake American Neanderthal, and without large motor cars for each one of them either! His shrinking from responsibility where global warming is concerned and the denial game he plays is part of his innate personality deficit and explains his smoking habits, alcoholism, drug habits, psycho-consumerism, addiction to gasoline and the motor cars that drink it, and his materialistic, non communal ways also! Poor fellow, easily deluded, coerced, convinced, connived, and propagandized, even by his own spin-Meister corporatist advertising propagandists into accepting their wishes as his reason for living! Planned obsolescence in products for profits, annual model changes to churn profits, commissions, and even McMansions the ultimate sales job, as necessities for life, in face of sensible survival shelters from Canada and other social democracies that make more sense! As China builds Electric Bullet trains to interconnect their huge cities, and by passes the airplane follies for computerized travel interconnecting even downtown subways and trams, no great terminals necessary, the great hulking American Neanderthal stalls, holds out for “Better Times” and bigger faster V-8 engined cars to resolve his travel problems and this is so, even as his great GM(America) goes on welfare and to slowly sink away in failure and bankruptcy. Global Warming? How can he bear the blame for even one more folly? He stonewalls, retrogresses in denial, and I as one don’t blame him for how he feels!