Anti-Caturday Post
Behold, the awesome Amblypygids! It’s a whole gallery of lovely photos of these harmless little arthropods that will have you cooing over their cuteness.
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
laurentweppe:
October 6th, 2012 at 12:29 pm
The molting whipscorpion really reminds me of Babylon Five’s shadow warships.
Keith Peterson:
October 6th, 2012 at 12:49 pm
D’awwwwwwww!
catwhisperer:
October 6th, 2012 at 3:22 pm
Goddammit, I was about to go to bed, now I’ll have nightmares!
I thought the moulting one looked like those “alien” facehugger things.
ChasCPeterson:
October 6th, 2012 at 4:22 pm
mmmmm, chelicerates.
a3kr0n:
October 6th, 2012 at 4:34 pm
That brings back memories of the time I touched a spider with a stick, and like a 1000 baby spiders scurried off. [shudder]
Ichthyic:
October 6th, 2012 at 4:40 pm
mmmmm, chelicerates.
or at least chelicerae?
to be distinguished from the perhaps much more tasty chelae?
Olav:
October 6th, 2012 at 5:29 pm
Fascinating little animal, can’t exactly call it “cute” though.
I am not phobic of arthropods, but still my initial instinctive reaction with these would be to keep a little distance.
Jumping spiders I do find cute and funny. Perhaps because of the cartoonish big eyes in proportion to their bodies. Also because the ones I usually encounter are so tiny overall as to be completely non-threatening.
Fizzing thru da Fizzics:
October 6th, 2012 at 7:51 pm
OT but PZ, have you seen this? Octopi rule!!
http://deepseanews.com/2012/10/octopus-steals-food-and-casually-wrestles-shark/
blogofmyself:
October 6th, 2012 at 10:34 pm
Those things are so cool. I’ve always wanted to see one in real life, but I don’t think I’ve ever lived anywhere within their natural range. Can you imagine just walking outside and flipping over a rock or something and suddenly there’s a tailless whipscorpion just hanging out? That would be simultaneously amazing and terrifying.
When I was little my mom was a biologist (she later switched to teaching). She studied spiders, so I have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for arachnids.
lurkeressa:
October 7th, 2012 at 1:35 pm
Awww… arachnid babies. So much more agreeable than human ones, at least when it comes to noise.
sarahb:
October 7th, 2012 at 3:46 pm
Is it wrong that I think they look like delicious candy?
Caine, Divisitrix du mal:
October 7th, 2012 at 3:50 pm
Very, very cool.
Ichthyic:
October 7th, 2012 at 4:18 pm
Is it wrong that I think they look like delicious candy?
like Popplers?
Yuriel:
October 7th, 2012 at 11:33 pm
D: I took a look at the site and all I can say is: holy crap, it’s the animal on which Prof. Moody demonstrated the Unforgivable curses at Hogwarts. Those freaking things are real?!