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Living Upside-down Shapes Spiders For Energy Saving
sciencedaily.com — An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Spain and Croatia led an investigation into the peculiar lifestyle of numerous spider species, which live, feed, breed and 'walk' in an upside-down hanging position
TalSiach- 348 diggs
- digg it
- Dokument, on 03/27/2008, -1/+40Maybe they are right side up and we are all upside down.
- crerwin, on 03/27/2008, -2/+6I think you just blew my mind.
- Dokument, on 03/28/2008, -0/+2are you calling me mentally gay?
- crerwin, on 03/27/2008, -2/+6I think you just blew my mind.
- Narcism, on 03/27/2008, -15/+7I can't possibly think of a witty comment for this link. Why I even bothered posting that comment, I'll never know.
- deviouskoopa, on 03/27/2008, -2/+6Either because there were 0 comments when it hit the front page, or because you were curious as to whether people would digg you up or down for a comment lacking in substance.Idk, it's a mystery.
- Mootabolife, on 03/27/2008, -3/+2Let's go through the witty comment creation process for this story shall we? Ok.. so we have possible sources of comment... they live feed, breed, and "walk" upside-down. Ok.. now lets think off track for something upside-down or related. Popular cultural references usually work well, internet references for digg also. Something spidermanish? No.. that won't do. Wait.. they breed upside-down! Bingo, that sounds like you could make a witty comment out of it. What is related to breeding upside-down? I got the perfect comment for you.. "Breeding upside down.. I'd give that a shot."
I'll sell it to you for $5.- surKaz, on 03/27/2008, -2/+1I'll give you $3...
- Charlotte_Web, on 03/27/2008, -1/+4Maybe you should try hanging upside down...
- FloorModel, on 03/27/2008, -5/+2some days I feel like I live upside down too
- surKaz, on 03/27/2008, -3/+1SOME days?
- guyperson, on 03/27/2008, -6/+8KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!
- Gravey9, on 03/27/2008, -4/+17Anyone else read that title like 5 times just to understand it?
- Neoanarchist, on 03/27/2008, -2/+4Yup, sure did.
- MattNF, on 03/27/2008, -1/+4No.
- okaroleo, on 03/27/2008, -1/+2no
- Twoje, on 03/27/2008, -0/+3I thought the shapes were living and upside down, and somehow they "spider" (verb) to help save energy...
- BeforeSputnik, on 03/27/2008, -1/+2No, i see a vase.
- BeforeSputnik, on 03/27/2008, -1/+2No, i see a vase.
- poidh, on 03/27/2008, -1/+21What about spiders in Australia?
- glinsvad, on 03/27/2008, -0/+6They swirl clockwise when you flush them
- jcastillo81, on 03/27/2008, -5/+7Did anyone else get the creeps when they saw that picture... why are spiders so freakin gross!?
- EndersGame21, on 03/27/2008, -2/+2Because God ran out of motivation when he got around to designing them.
- MattB123, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1Nope. I really only have a problem with spiders when they bite me which is almost never.
- Neoanarchist, on 03/27/2008, -3/+1That is a good ***** question my good sir.
- bosssmiley, on 03/27/2008, -3/+6Article reproduced below:
Living Upside-down Shapes Spiders For Energy Saving
ScienceDaily (Mar. 26, 2008) — An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Spain and Croatia led an investigation into the peculiar lifestyle of numerous spider species, which live, feed, breed and 'walk' in an upside-down hanging position. According to their results, such 'unconventional' enterprise drives a shape in spiders that confers high energy efficiency, as in oscillatory pendulums.
See also:
Plants & Animals
* Spiders and Ticks
* Evolutionary Biology
* Animals
Matter & Energy
* Vehicles
* Physics
* Chemistry
Reference
* Yellow sac spider
* Hobo spider
* Widow spider
* Opiliones
The great majority of land animals evolved to use the ground as the main support for their motion. Accordingly, they evolved legs capable of supporting the weight of their whole bodies, enabling them to move around with their heads above their feet. However, many spider species found it more convenient to literally turn their world upside down. They spend most of their lives hanging suspended by their legs, and 'walk' by swinging under the influence of gravity.
Intrigued by this evolutionary phenomenon, a team of biologists from the Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (CSIC, Almería) in Spain, joined by an astrophysicist from the University of Split, Croatia, conducted an inquiry into biological advantages and caveats of such a peculiar lifestyle by studying over a hundred spider species. One of their focal questions was the evolutionary importance of 'bridging' -- the technique many spiders use to move between remote plants by building their own silk bridges, which they cross by 'walking' suspended upside-down from them.
Earlier research by other authors indicated that for monkeys this suspensory way of locomotion might be a more energetically efficient way of transportation than 'regular' walking on the ground. To this end, the authors took several spider species into the laboratory and compared how they handle two different types of movement - walking on the ground and bridging from branch to branch.
"We discovered that spiders that live upside-down have evolved disproportionately longer legs relative to 'normal' spiders, which enables them to move faster while bridging than while 'normally walking' on the ground. Particularly 'clumsy' walkers are larger spiders, because their long legs -- otherwise so convenient for bridging -- do not allow an easy lifting of their relatively large body mass" says Dr. Jordi Moya-Laraño from Spain, the principal investigator on this project.
For Dr. Dejan Vinkovi, astrophysicist from Croatia, this research is more than a biology study. "As a physicist, I was particularly interested in the energetics of upside-down locomotion" he says. "With this research we finally proved that the energetic efficiency of such motion stems from the same physical principle used to run the grandfather's clock -- motion of a pendulum under the influence of gravity."
Dr. Eulalia Moreno, co-author of the study, adds: "We started this collaboration with Dr. Moya-Laraño because I had studied the form and function of legs in *****, birds that, similarly to spiders, hang upside-down while foraging. Now, we have a much better understanding of how an animal shape should evolve when animals spent most of their lifetime hanging upside-down."
These results have implications for the evolution and ecology of spiders. For example, small spiders that hang from their webs should be able to leave their webs in search for prey by walking on the ground, as found in some tiny spiders, something that large spiders will be unable to do efficiently.
Journal reference: Moya-Laraño J, Vinkovi D, De Mas E, Corcobado G, Moreno E (2008) Morphological Evolution of Spiders Predicted by Pendulum Mechanics. PLoS One 3(3): e1841. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001841
Adapted from materials provided by Public Library of Science, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.- OrangeSoda31, on 03/27/2008, -1/+2Thanks to you, I didn't have to click the link.
- bosssmiley, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1We live to serve.
- OrangeSoda31, on 03/27/2008, -1/+2Thanks to you, I didn't have to click the link.
- etgryphon, on 03/27/2008, -2/+7Dr. Eulalia Moreno, co-author of the study, adds: "We started this collaboration with Dr. Moya-Laraño because I had studied the form and function of legs in *****, birds that, similarly to spiders, hang upside-down while foraging."
hehe...he said '*****'...- ChocChunkOaties, on 03/27/2008, -1/+2and 'foraging'... in the same sentence. I bet he likes 'foraging' for '*****'.
- EndersGame21, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1Dugg for *****. Oh, wait, this time that's actually kind of nasty...
- glinsvad, on 03/27/2008, -0/+3I can haz *****?
- BeforeSputnik, on 03/27/2008, -0/+2I wish i got paid to study legs 'n *****. Until then, i guess i'll just continue on, as a starving artist following my passion.
- insonh, on 03/27/2008, -0/+2great! now i can finally have my upside down energy saving spider car.
that is of course if the big oil companies put a stop to it - insonh, on 03/27/2008, -1/+1in other news
not to be outdone by an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Spain and Croatia studying the energy saving habits of spiders a interdisciplinary team of researchers from Canada and Guinna has had a major brake through in why fish swim in water.
film at 11 - cgbspender, on 03/27/2008, -1/+4Spiderpig, spiderpig, ...
- LOVEANDEQUALITY, on 03/27/2008, -1/+0neat spiders!
- ultralights, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1what about the spiders In oz that live on the ground, and can quite easily kill you. and another thing, how does a spider build a web between 2 trees when there is nothing but water between the 2 trees??
- larsalan, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1I believe they harness the power of wind to bridge the gap.
//digs for discovery channel footage
- larsalan, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1I believe they harness the power of wind to bridge the gap.
- larsalan, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1found a good one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-Wfp3tzLeM
It's not as if spiders crawl across the ground to make a web, right?
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