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.
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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
If what you’re saying is true, then the 2% of growth - in the past 10 years - can not be due to higher global temperatures. Global temperatures stopped rising in 1998.
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Oh BS. This whole “Global Warming” talk is crap.
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Or, giant spiders could be a result of taking pictures of the spiders close up. Also, Why Are You Capitalizing Every Word Of The Title Of The Story? It doesn’t make the spiders any bigger. Sensationalist reporting at its finest.
effect —> affect
Josh,
Unfortunately, you’re propagating false information that has been spread throughout the internet by global warming deniers. In reality, the decade between 1998 and 2007 was the hottest on record– that according to the WMO– World Meteorological Organization.
There have been conficting reports about whether 1998 was the hottest year, or 2005 was. Regardless, they were both hot. Global Warming doesn’t mean that temperatures go up consistently every year. Rather, you have to look at overall trends. For instance, 2008 was a La Nina year, so it was cooler than 2007– but 2008 was still the 12th hottest year on record, despite that.
The false data you are promoting is based on the following shady rationale: if 1998 was the hottest year on record, then every year since then has been cooler– thus the Earth must be cooling. When in fact, it doesn’t take into consideration overall trends and averages, which would indicate that the whole decade was hotter than the last, even though the hottest year may have been– may have been– 1998.
Those wolfspiders are nasty. We’ve seen them here in NC with 1 inch+ long bodies fangs to rear end, and they gallop. It’s awfully creepy to see a spider gallop.
poor scott tuttle. he’s hopping mad. they’re so unhinged by the liberal revolution that they deny the world’s getting hotter for any reason.
the right wing nut jobs have denied that there is any kind of global warming at all. now, I bet they’ll deny that their past blanket denials. (roll the video tapes please) hehehe
can’t deny it any longer so now they just deny human envolvement when we don’t know if their is or isn’t 100%. (just 95%)
so, they’re so deranged they spew and sputter that there’s no human component without that being an established fact.
who cares if I’m wrong and my grand children pay the price?
what kind of nut job thinks that way.
maybe we are involved. we don’t know yet. you’re willing to gamble the wellfare of your children’s children?
maybe you’ll luck out and they’ll be liberal democrats. if the burn so what. screw ‘em.
Do you also know that Earth goes through warming periods? It as throughout history. The Sun is the primary source of this heat. Other planets are also warming. I suppose that our Co2 emissions are also warming Mars?