Megarachne servinei - largest spider to ever live

[Gail]

Thought I'd share a few snippets of various web site about this prehistoric spider. Can you imagine having one of these in your collection! Wow. I wonder what their temperment was?

"A new family, Megarachnidae Araneida, had to be established when this beautfully detailed giant spider was discovered. Found in rocks of the Upper Carboniferous in St. Louis Province, Argentina, it represents the largest known spider ever to have walked on Earth.

Living some 300 million years ago, it had a 15mm (0.5") circular eye containing three pairs of lenses at the centre of its head. The length of this specimen is 34cm (16"): it would have had a leg span of some 50cm (20")!"

"It's believed that the largest spider that ever lived was almost half a metre long, with huge shovel-like jaws, possibly for digging into soil or deep leaf mould. It is called Megarachne servinei and was preserved in Upper Carboniferous rocks in Brazil."

Gail

 

[Alex S.]

Megarachne

Hey Gail, I dont usually post in the tarantula forum but when it comes to Megarachne.... absolutely incredible spider. Just to let everyone know they were not a theraphosid, like gail said, of their own family.

Alex S.

 

[savian]

Is there any drawing of it or pics of what they found. I would like to see it.

 

[Gail]

Here's a link to a fossil picture that I found

http://www.aldex.co.uk/aspr/aps4.htm

Gail

 

[Henry Kane]

That would be really cool if they could make a reproduction of what it might have looked like. Like a sculpture or statue or whatever. To scale of course. The fossil is quite impressive but still leaves a lot to the imagination.

Atrax

 

[Gail]

I've got a better idea - find one preserved in amber, extract it's genetic juices and clone it!! Quite a pipe dream but wouldn't it be just too cool

Gail

 

[Henry Kane]

Yeah, does sound like a pipe dream (more like a 4 hose hookah dream for that matter...not that I condone THOSE kind of dreams whatsoever ) but you're right, that would be INSANE cool!

Atrax

 

[SkyeSpider]

... Until the giant spiders were prooved to have superior intellect to ours, then they take over the world!! =D

Yeah, it's one of those days

 

[belewfripp]

How exactly would that be a bad thing?

 

[Gail]

Just a thought...

 

[savian]

Ah to dream the impossible dream. Thanks for the link by the way.

 

[hobofied]

Sorry folks

Upon taking recent interest in spiders... I stumbled upon THIS:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/02/050222192426.htm

Aiye...

 

[Czalz]

... Until the giant spiders were prooved to have superior intellect to ours, then they take over the world!! =D

Yeah, it's one of those days

sounds like pinky and the brain

 

[kutlu]

Sorry to burst any bubbles but the prehistoric spider was actually a sea creature of some sort and is not classified as a spider.

 

[Mez]

Is there lots of soil and leaf mold in the sea, then?

 

[Mojo Jojo]

Sorry to burst any bubbles but the prehistoric spider was actually a sea creature of some sort and is not classified as a spider.

How do you burst a bubble that is almost 9 years old?

 

[Moltar]

Sorry to burst any bubbles but the prehistoric spider was actually a sea creature of some sort and is not classified as a spider.

Perhaps that was discovered sometime during the nine years since this thread was created.

Edit: Oh, Dragonfly got there first...

 

[sjl197]

To understand why Megarachne is not a spider, do some searching on the group Eurypterida, or eurypterids.

The current view seems to be theyre something more like Horseshoe crabs (which are actually closer to spider and scorpions than real crabs), but in a group of their own called Eurypterida or water scorpions.


but dont worry, Dr Selden just announced another fossil of a proper giant spider to keep you all interested.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13134505

---------- Post added at 05:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:29 PM ----------

damnit, as i saw this thread in the tarantula forum, i didnt see that Zoltan had just posted a details of this giant Nephila already !

He moves faster than a Scolopendra.

 

[asher]

That would be really cool if they could make a reproduction of what it might have looked like. Like a sculpture or statue or whatever. To scale of course. The fossil is quite impressive but still leaves a lot to the imagination.

Atrax

I saw a life-size model (fairly realistic) of the largest spider fossil ever found in the Museum of Zoology in Cambridge a couple of months ago, it was huge!

Here's the only picture of it I could find