Giant spiders

i find scorpions to be quite horrifying and dangerous as well.but really large spiders are the worse.all those undulating legs! all those menacing eyes! not to mention the fact that they are ambush predators!

right here where i live in massachusetts.across the street back in the 1950's a woman was bringing out her husband some lunch.while he was ripping out the old wooden front steps and she was bitten by a black widow and died from it!!! her husband told me that story about 15 years ago, when he was an old man...

Originally posted by blocula

Originally posted by CynicalDrivel
I think the only thing that limits size is oxygen conversion. I'm not sure anyone's found out the what our present day levels of oxygen requires of their Book Lungs?

i don't know?...the less oxygen levels of today, have'nt shrunk down the elephants or whales,or rhinos much.their still almost the same size as they always were...why would spiders be any different?

1. Debateable. Largest found Mammoth skeleton is 5 meters/16 ft at the shoulder, which is larger than modern Elephants get. The Stegondon is at the tallest end of the range at 4 Meters/13 ft. This is why the African Savannah Elephant is called the largest of all extant species with a shoulder height for bulls of 3.2-3.6 m. I can understand the reaction of "what's another metre, at that size", but there is a difference in size from fossils to living examples.

2. I already posted the information on how Beetles can only get so big before the size of the required lungs prevents viability.

3. As I posted already, larger Dragonflies have been bred due to changing the oxygen ratios in labs.

4. I'm less inclined to compare a spider to an elephant than a Beetle or Dragonfly.

5. If someone did a study on the capacity of book lungs, they might be able to extrapolate just how big a spider could get, in our present day atmosphere. If it works out the way it did with the Beetles, they already had found Beetles before that were at that maximum.
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Now I will amend myself: I think the only thing that limits the maximum size is oxygen conversion.
That was faulty on my part, for the lack of conciseness.

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But fossil evidence of how big Spiders were in the past is limited to very tiny spiders: National Geographic

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But:

The largest spider ever observed by scientists was over 8 feet long and weighed in at 530 pounds. It was actually immobile though, it's legs had been broken long ago by merely carrying its own weight

Here Where the heck they go this information from, I have no idea...yet. Most namedropping crypto sties I've run across bring up: Reginald and Margurite Lloyd. They also put the maximum size at about 5 feet, weighing over/around 500 pounds?

But:

The largest spider ever observed by scientists was over 8 feet long and weighed in at 530 pounds. It was actually immobile though, it's legs had been broken long ago by merely carrying its own weight

Here Where the heck they go this information from, I have no idea...yet. Most namedropping crypto sties I've run across bring up: Reginald and Margurite Lloyd. They also put the maximum size at about 5 feet, weighing over/around 500 pounds?

That link was interesting until I got to this part towards the end.

"Perhaps most startling is the so-called Chronospider. In an effort to avoid becoming lunch, the chronospider actually manages to exist outside time itself. A praying mantis or bird intending to eat the spider must therefore do so in every time period simultaneously."

WTH, is that some sort of joke that went completely over my head? Aside from that little gem the rest of the page was pretty informative.

reply to post by CynicalDrivel

Here Where the heck they go this information from, I have no idea...yet. Most namedropping crypto sties I've run across bring up: Reginald and Margurite Lloyd. They also put the maximum size at about 5 feet, weighing over/around 500 pounds?

wow!!!

that site is the most craziest thing i ever seen!

i agree spiders are amazing and beautiful creatures but they hardly transcend time and grow emeralds or live and grow forever!

anyone remember "charlottes web"?

Would be good to get this thread going again.

Any photos?

^^^^ agreed, but I cant find anymore stories about tribes having stories about giant spiders. Those are the most interesting I think.

Originally posted by ConspiracySquid7
^^^^ agreed, but I cant find anymore stories about tribes having stories about giant spiders. Those are the most interesting I think.

It's a shame really, when ever I look online it's the same stuff over again. They prolly don't exist anyway.

But can we bring back animals from fossils? Or is that to advanced for us?

wow, isn´t this something;
finally a thread that i actually find VERY interesting,
and i´m not able to read the posts because
some people put up pictures of the damned things!
Just looking at one those makes my skin crawl big time.
But still, the concept is interesting, even though the physics are against it.
But there is always the possibility of adaptive mutations...

This link contains a story of an encounter with a giant spider from Louisiana in 1948 > www.cryptomundo.com...

Massive spiders living in forests near African villages,with webs stretched across pathways and trip-wires to ensnare passers-by,including humans,who are then pounced upon and injected with venom by the creatures’s fangs... Giant Spiders > english.pravda.ru...

Originally posted by blocula
This link contains a story of an encounter with a giant spider from Louisiana in 1948 > www.cryptomundo.com...

Massive spiders living in forests near African villages,with webs stretched across pathways and trip-wires to ensnare passers-by,including humans,who are then pounced upon and injected with venom by the creatures’s fangs... Giant Spiders > english.pravda.ru...

edit on 17-1-2012 by blocula because: (no reason given)

Thank you very much for the links sir/madam!

Star for you.

One day, when I leave the armed forces I'd like to go to where the sitings took place and conduct my own little investigation. Would be very interesting!

An English missionary named Arthur Simes related an incident that occurred in Uganda during the 1890s. While trekking near the shore of Lake Nyasa, his porters became entangled in a monstrous web. Several giant spiders swiftly descended upon them, injecting the men with poisonous venom. Later, all the men's extremities swelled, they grew feverish, delirious and then died.Simes claimed he drove the giant spiders off with his pistol...

Possibility of the existence of the Congolese giant spider > www.helium.com...

Spiders spanning 5 feet you say? Why didn't they bring them backj you say? Well, I'm guessing they didn't have a glass big enough to slip over it, nor a bit of card strong enough to slip under the glass!!

I'm no arachnophobe, but I'm starting to wish I'd never read this thread

reply to post by Acidtastic
If a 3 inch spider can run 2mph,then a 6 inch spider would be able to run 4mph,then a 12 inch spider would be able to run 8 mph,then a 24 inch spider would be able to run 16mph,then a 48 inch spider would be able to run 32mph...Getting my point?...The horror of it all is beyond words,if millions of 4ft spiders lived on earth, humans would probably be killed off...

Originally posted by blocula
reply to post by Acidtastic

 

If a 3 inch spider can run 2mph,then a 6 inch spider would be able to run 4mph,then a 12 inch spider would be able to run 8 mph,then a 24 inch spider would be able to run 16mph,then a 48 inch spider would be able to run 32mph...Getting my point?...The horror of it all is beyond words,if millions of 4ft spiders lived on earth, humans would probably be killed off...

edit on 17-1-2012 by blocula because: (no reason given)

A 3 inch spider can run 2mph? Then I'm glad we haven't officially discovered giant spiders yet.

Originally posted by Krono

Originally posted by blocula
reply to post by Acidtastic

 

If a 3 inch spider can run 2mph,then a 6 inch spider would be able to run 4mph,then a 12 inch spider would be able to run 8 mph,then a 24 inch spider would be able to run 16mph,then a 48 inch spider would be able to run 32mph...Getting my point?...The horror of it all is beyond words,if millions of 4ft spiders lived on earth, humans would probably be killed off...

edit on 17-1-2012 by blocula because: (no reason given)

A 3 inch spider can run 2mph? Then I'm glad we haven't officially discovered giant spiders yet.

Speed "in relation to" size must be taken into account,compared to a human running,a spider runs slowly,but compared to itself and other spiders,they can run quite fast and 4 to 5 ft spiders would be able to run faster than we would like to think they could and they are also fanged and multiple eyed ambush predators...The stuff of nightmares...

Something occured to me, if their breathing systems are inefficient would it not depend on the location and environment? For example, the oxygen levels in the amazon rainforests would be alot higher than a city, therefore the amazon bein more habitable for a giant spider to sustain.

Exoskeletons, now, don't this giant crabs have exoskeletons,?

reply to post by grey580


So would I mate. Most spiders freak me the £$£$ out so bad my wife has to deal with them.
But sadly my behaviour had an effect on my son, who has a terrible phobia about them.
I wont be going to the Congo on holiday this summer then.
Thanks OP.

Originally posted by supamoto
reply to post by grey580

 

So would I mate. Most spiders freak me the £$£$ out so bad my wife has to deal with them.
But sadly my behaviour had an effect on my son, who has a terrible phobia about them.
I wont be going to the Congo on holiday this summer then.
Thanks OP.

I'm sorry you believe this. Just because there has been sightings, it doesnt make it real. The stories could be fake. Yes some tribesmen may have seen them but how do we know they mean a 5ft spider? For all we know it could be a normal sized turantula.

reply to post by Krono


I was only joking about the Congo. This post has been so terrifying but insanely compelling.
Seriously though we in the UK have a 'White widow' spider. I holiday in the Isle of Wight (small island in English Channel) & they have fair few there. Black & shiney with with white markings on the abdomen.
They crunch if you kill them (exo-skeleton) & the web is near impossible to destroy.
I don't know how to post pics. I got a pic of one killing a bee. Gross!
They are so scary.................goose pimples just writing this.

reply to post by supamoto


Don't we have the purse spider in the UK? Thought that was venomous.