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naem posted:it took nature a really long time to evolve jaws for some reason- early fish were pretty much worms that swam with an open mouth and giant scorpion like creatures ruled the oceans and also were among the first to crawl onto land. Hey, when the only tool you have is legs, every problem looks like a ... thing that you messily devour by tearing it apart with your horrifying leg-mouth.
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Jun 18, 2020 18:16
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 12:42 |
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rear end-penny posted:These are all very good spiders, bats, snails, and centipedes. What was going on in that scorpion gif on the first page? Is it feeding itself or just grooming? Are scorpion mandibles just little claws or were those like baby scorps living on it's face? Grooming. Those are the chelicerae, which in spiders are the fangs. But scorpions have sharp claw / pincer bits to eat with. Their big claws (the pedipalp limb) can't cut up food, only hold onto it.  As naem was talking about, how do you eat when you don't have a jaw to chew up food? Spiders solve the problem with venom that starts digesting stuff right away, and then they suck out the soup. Scorpions didn't come up with digesting-venom, they evolved neurotoxic stuff. (This is why scorpions have generally nastier stings than spiders.) Scorpions tear up food with the chelicerae and pull it into the space below that head shield, where they have a sort of mouth-pouch. They barf digestion juice into the pouch, let it work, then suck up the good stuff and spit out anything they can't digest. They're messy eaters. Arachnid fact of the day: these mouthparts are what the sub-phylum Chelicerata -- the spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, eurypterids, etc -- are named for.
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Jun 18, 2020 22:33
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free hubcaps posted:since we're branching out into other misunderstood crawlies i want to give a shoutout to one of my favorite groups of insects, Robber Flies! The latest research on the evolutionary history of Hexapods (insects) is that they originated completely within the Crustacea. So in much the same way that birds are a sub-group of dinosaurs, insects are a sub-group of the crustaceans. therefore, robber flies belong in the Crab Thread 
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Jun 19, 2020 00:48
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i'll take "real pictures that look like bad cut-and-paste shops" for $500, alex
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Jun 22, 2020 18:57
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Julius CSAR posted:Spiders are good friends but i have been by brown recluse and got necrosis and it was extremely painful. 
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Jun 23, 2020 06:11
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 12:42 |
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The Mighty Moltres posted:Ants are cool too! what the  why do they do that? do they hunt the ants they mimic? I wouldn't have guessed that would work, ants aren't the most visual of animals.
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Jul 8, 2020 14:21
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