It's not easy to look at a sea spider and see an animal so representative of its kind that it may help scientists sort out the evolution of almost everything with eight legs. But that's the potential ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Bird-dropping spider (Phrynarachne decipiens, Thomisidae) is a species of crab spider. It mimics a bird dropping in its appearance ...

Half a billion years ago, a strange sea-dwelling creature called Mollisonia symmetrica may have paved the way for modern spiders. Using detailed fossil brain analysis, researchers uncovered neural ...

A new study challenges traditional views on arachnid evolution, suggesting that the transition from water to land occurred multiple times rather than in a single event. The research also highlights ...

Spiders’ ability to spin webs may be one consequence of a really big genetic mistake. A close look at the genetics and development of spinnerets — spiders’ silk-making organs — reveals that an early ...

The knotty sea spider, Pycnogonum litorale, is not actually a spider, but it does represent a significant early branch in the genetic family tree that includes spiders, as well as scorpions, ticks and ...