# Giant Spiders in the Amazon Rainforest



## milehigh (Jun 18, 2013)

Recently I've been hearing about the different myths and legends behind giant spiders (5 1/2 foot long) in the Amazon Rainforest. People report children and pets being carried off and eaten. Right now I guess they're knd of like bigfoot- they may be there, but they are not proven to be. Does anyone belive in these stories, or have evidence they exist?

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## Ciphor (Jun 18, 2013)

milehigh said:


> Recently I've been hearing about the different myths and legends behind giant spiders (5 1/2 foot long) in the Amazon Rainforest. People report children and pets being carried off and eaten. Right now I guess they're knd of like bigfoot- they may be there, but they are not proven to be. Does anyone belive in these stories, or have evidence they exist?


A 5 foot diameter spider would have a hard time avoiding capture/evidence over the duration of mans stay on this planet. It's a myth mate.

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## spiderengineer (Jun 18, 2013)

milehigh said:


> Recently I've been hearing about the different myths and legends behind giant spiders (5 1/2 foot long) in the Amazon Rainforest. People report children and pets being carried off and eaten. Right now I guess they're knd of like bigfoot- they may be there, but they are not proven to be. Does anyone belive in these stories, or have evidence they exist?


some one has been watching monster hunter on the history channel

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## milehigh (Jun 18, 2013)

spiderengineer said:
			
		

> some one has been watching monster hunter on the history channel


How'd you know? 

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Ciphor said:


> A 5 foot diameter spider would have a hard time avoiding capture/evidence over the duration of mans stay on this planet. It's a myth mate.


That's how I feel.


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## spiderengineer (Jun 18, 2013)

milehigh said:


> How'd you know?


seen that episode as well


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## windscorpions1 (Jun 18, 2013)

I saw the this episode as well. There is no such thing as a 5 foot spider.


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## The Snark (Jun 18, 2013)

Lagest terrestrial, Heteropoda Maxima. Web spinner, Nephila (they trade off which is larger). Largest aerial, Antanov 225. Largest ephemeral, see the Sasquatch thread,

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## MarkmD (Jun 18, 2013)

before/during age if the dinosaurs their was super-massive spiders, because the atmosphere was different back then, not sure exactly what size they where but were huge.


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## Ciphor (Jun 18, 2013)

MarkmD said:


> before/during age if the dinosaurs their was super-massive spiders, because the atmosphere was different back then, not sure exactly what size they where but were huge.


They were the same size as spiders now days. The largest known spider fossil is only 6 inches in diameter. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/04/110419-biggest-fossil-spider-china-animals-science/

_Megarachne servinei_ (the giant 1 foot 20 some inch leg span spider shown on some documentaries) was nothing more then a miss-identified sea scorpion fossil. Happens all the time 

http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2010/03/24/megarachne-the-giant-spider-th/


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## Tarantula155 (Jun 18, 2013)

This is a joke, right? I don't know how anyone can believe in such things. Of course it's not real.


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## Elytra and Antenna (Jun 19, 2013)

There are Amazonian whipspiders with a whipspan -front legspan- up to 24" (2 feet).

Show us a report of a pet or child being carried off in a link (we probably all have internet access here). Remember that most "spider bites" on the internet are bacterial infections but it's chic to blame it on spiders.


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## The Snark (Jun 19, 2013)

I read some glurp about spider size a while back. The paper concluded the size of the spider has been determined by evolution and modified by habitat. Essentially, it expounded that spiders over a certain size become prey to more different types of animals and the species survival rate goes down accordingly. Take H Maxima. It is able to achieve such a large size due to it's relatively predator free habitat just slightly less hostile than the dark side of the moon but highly conducive to it's survival.


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## josh_r (Jun 19, 2013)

I am living in Peru now and I have not heard of such stories from the locals.... Maybe I just need to get out more...


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## MarkmD (Jun 19, 2013)

Ciphor said:


> They were the same size as spiders now days. The largest known spider fossil is only 6 inches in diameter. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/04/110419-biggest-fossil-spider-china-animals-science/
> 
> _Megarachne servinei_ (the giant 1 foot 20 some inch leg span spider shown on some documentaries) was nothing more then a miss-identified sea scorpion fossil. Happens all the time
> 
> http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2010/03/24/megarachne-the-giant-spider-th/




Alright cool, i wasn't sure thanks for the link.


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## freedumbdclxvi (Jun 19, 2013)

I have a rare pygmy giant amazonian spider.  Only grows to about 10" - far less dangerous than its five foot cousin.   A steal at only $1250!


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## Stefan2209 (Jun 19, 2013)

josh_r said:


> I am living in Peru now and I have not heard of such stories from the locals.... Maybe I just need to get out more...


Hi Josh,

it's always a good idea to go out and have a chat with the locals while you're in Peru 

However, in regard of that "hear-say" portrayed giant "man-eater" spider in Monster Quest, i personally take it for rather likely that such myths in the Amazon never existed at all.

I have a bit of an interest in cryptozoology, so i'm aware of the "tale" of that umpty-feet large spider, it's an old report anyway. The interesting fact is rather, this was never reported from South-America (if Amazon or anywhere else), but from the african Congo.

Now Monster Quest comes along and wants to do a tv-show, that's about 95% entertaining and about 5% education (at best). 
Take a look at the safety & security situation in the Congo these days.... Then go looking for someone who can credibly be casted as some kind of "expert" on congolese spiders and who has good connections over there...
That's the very point where some problems start to build up.

Now let's say, we just switch continents: we make up a story and say it all has happened in South-America. 

Here we have:

1. a very credible and knowledgeable science guy who has a positive media-attitude
2. much better safety & security situation
3. a professional expediteur-company who just needs to be payed to get the media-material needed

and as a bonus you get

4. some live-material of worlds-largest tarantula

Much better than to deal with the Congo - aside from that: next to no one will care anyway. The only persons with that kind of knowledge are for sure not the target-audience of Monster Quest, so why bother? 

Amused Greetings,

Stefan


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## pitbulllady (Jun 19, 2013)

_Monster Quest_ actually started out in its first season as a fairly interesting show, but things quickly went downhill from there.  When your "expeditions" fail to turn up any actual evidence for any of the more-famous "cryptids", you resort to making stuff up, creating stories and "monsters" where none have existed, not even in obscure folklore, and that's what they did.  Their last seasons covered mutant packs of killer dogs roaming the country, the result of wild dogs from Asia mating with "pit bulls" and other fighting breeds, mutant giant wild hogs, hybrids between venomous cobras and giant Burmese pythons taking over Florida the rest of the country which could reach lengths of over 30 feet, had deadly venom AND could constrict,  and of course, five-foot-wide man-eating spiders in the Amazon, and other utterly ridiculous garbage.  The show disintegrated quickly from being a means of taking a look at the more famous cryptids, like Bigfoot, and the evidence of their possible existence, to being simply another example of sensationalistic programming with no educational value at all.

pitbulllady


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## paassatt (Jun 19, 2013)

pitbulllady said:


> ...to being simply another example of sensationalistic programming with no educational value at all.
> 
> pitbulllady


That describes about 85% of all television now. Another reason I've never regretted ditching cable a year ago.

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## The Snark (Jun 19, 2013)

paassatt said:


> That describes about 85% of all television now. Another reason I've never regretted ditching cable a year ago.


85%? I'd go with 98.872% and at least 106% of that can be replaced by a few minutes web surfing a day (someplace other than twittster, fakebook et al).
Quality web sites like http://hoaxbusters.org/ are not that hard to find.


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## josh_r (Jun 20, 2013)

Stefan2209 said:


> Hi Josh,
> 
> it's always a good idea to go out and have a chat with the locals while you're in Peru
> 
> ...


That makes sense! Thanks for the explanation! I am defilitely going to be talking with locals about this n' that. I have plenty of time to do so as I have moved here. It has been very interesting learning the culture! Thanks again!

JOsh


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## fenhawk1 (Jun 22, 2013)

MarkmD said:


> before/during age if the dinosaurs their was super-massive spiders, because the atmosphere was different back then, not sure exactly what size they where but were huge.


I believe its to do with how inverts are limited nowadays because our atmosphere has less oxygen. They breathe through diffusion into the body - instead of blood to transport oxygen they use thin tubes networked throughout their bodies called trachae so they can only get as large as the percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere can allow as they get their oxygen via diffusion, I guess this is why inverts can get much larger in the water


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## The Snark (Jun 22, 2013)

fenhawk1 said:


> I believe its to do with how inverts are limited nowadays because our atmosphere has less oxygen. They breathe through diffusion into the body - instead of blood to transport oxygen they use thin tubes networked throughout their bodies called trachae so they can only get as large as the percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere can allow as they get their oxygen via diffusion, I guess this is why inverts can get much larger in the water


The oxygen content in the atmosphere remains a steady ~20.9%. Perhaps you refer to the increase in pollutants?


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## fenhawk1 (Jun 23, 2013)

The Snark said:


> The oxygen content in the atmosphere remains a steady ~20.9%. Perhaps you refer to the increase in pollutants?


I mean during the Carboniferous


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## Webless (Jun 23, 2013)

The Snark said:


> The oxygen content in the atmosphere remains a steady ~20.9%. Perhaps you refer to the increase in pollutants?


The atmosphere on earth used to contain 33.6 % oxygen and back then insects got massive, as i recall the average size of a dragonfly was a 30CM wingspan. Due to the air being so much more oxygen rich the insects got HUGE, though ive never seen a Fossil of a T that big.


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## The Snark (Jun 24, 2013)

fenhawk1 said:


> I mean during the Carboniferous


Ah! My miss.


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## cantthinkofone (Jun 24, 2013)

idk guys. multiple tribes described the SAME looking spider. if you get multiple SAME reports from multiple DIFFERENT people, then something might be there. czech here: http://beforeitsnews.com/strange/20...t-5-foot-spiders-spotted-in-congo-130421.html


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## freedumbdclxvi (Jun 24, 2013)

Something like a normal T might be there.  No way an arthropod that large could exist in today's atmosphere.


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## Bongo Fury (Jun 24, 2013)

cantthinkofone said:


> idk guys. multiple tribes described the SAME looking spider. if you get multiple SAME reports from multiple DIFFERENT people, then something might be there. czech here: http://beforeitsnews.com/strange/20...t-5-foot-spiders-spotted-in-congo-130421.html


Did you read any other stories on that website? Beforeitsnews is a complete joke, even amongst the tin-foil hat crowd.


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## Ciphor (Jun 24, 2013)

cantthinkofone said:


> idk guys. multiple tribes described the SAME looking spider. if you get multiple SAME reports from multiple DIFFERENT people, then something might be there. czech here: http://beforeitsnews.com/strange/20...t-5-foot-spiders-spotted-in-congo-130421.html


two sources, ok. But how credible are the sources?? The one you linked comes from a site called Helium with 0 credibility, from an author Terrence Aym, who also writes about zombies. I'm going to go with "No", science is more credible then this story.

I also liked how when I was reading this I got a pop up suggesting I'd also like this story: Obama gives china permission to invade the US if the dollar dies


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## The Snark (Jun 24, 2013)

RE: blatherfornewz. The use of the words 'nightmare' 'horrifying' and 'terrifying' belong in the realm of fiction. IE, inciting emotions on the part of the reader. Also, congrats to T Blondi for becoming the worlds largest.


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## cantthinkofone (Jun 27, 2013)

yeah i realize now my mistake of linking trash to a topic sorry.


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