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Blobrana


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Tarantulas evolved blue colour 'at least eight times'

Tarantulas have evolved almost exactly the same shade of vibrant blue at least eight separate times.
That is the conclusion of a study by US biologists, exploring how the colour is created in different tarantula species.
The hue is created by tiny structures inside the animals' hairs, but those shapes vary across the family tree.
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Blobrana


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Ancient arachnid 'walks again'

The dead walk again: an arachnid that lived 410 million years ago has crawled back into the virtual world.
The creature's remains were so well preserved in fossil form that scientists could see all its leg joints, allowing them to recreate its likely gait using computer graphics.
Known as a trigonotarbid, the animal was one of the first predators on land.
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Blobrana


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Dolomedes plantarius
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Return of the UK's biggest spider

With a leg length of up to 8cm, the great raft spider (Dolomedes plantarius) is one of the UK's largest arachnids.
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Blobrana


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Ancient daddy long legs creep up in 3D: 300m year old harvestmen revealed in new virtual fossil

Two ancient types of harvestmen, or 'daddy long legs,' which skittered around forests more than 300 million years ago, are revealed in new three-dimensional virtual fossil models published today in the journal Nature Communications.
An international team, led by researchers from Imperial College London, have created 3D models of two fossilised species of harvestmen, from the Dyspnoi and Eupnoi suborders. The ancient creatures lived on Earth before the dinosaurs, in the Carboniferous period. The 3-D models are providing fresh insights into how these ancient eight-legged creatures, whose 1cm bodies were the size of small buttons, survived in the Earth's ancient forests and how harvestmen as a group have evolved.
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Blobrana


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Nephila jurassica
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Scientists have described a Chinese spider they say is the biggest fossilised arachnid yet found.
The female, which lived about 165 million years ago, belongs to a collection of spiders well known today - the golden orb weavers.
These creatures make webs from a very tough and distinctively golden silk.
The researchers tell the journal Biology Letters that Nephila jurassica, as they have called their specimen, would have had a leg span of some 15cm.
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Blobrana


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Arachnid
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A spider that dines almost exclusively on plants has been described by scientists.
It is the first-known predominantly vegetarian spider; all of the other known 40,000 spider species are thought to be mainly carnivorous.
Bagheera kiplingi, which is found in Central America and Mexico, bucks the meat-eating trend by feasting on acacia plants.
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