Submitted by psychoxxsurfer t3_z7n4uk in Showerthoughts
Comments
Niche_Humor t1_iy7e9gb wrote
What do you mean "early" mammals? This forum alone is full of people who freak out at the idea of them. Let's talk about snakes - they move without legs or fins - so they made a woman eat an apple, which made us all destined to burn in a volcano unless we believe that some guy who said that maybe we should be nice to each other for a change got nailed to a board but his father said it would be okay except for those who predate him because they were chosen first but also those who believe in Abraham but fuck the rest, but.... 🤮 My point is that so many of us are freaking out about shit we know nothing about.
waflcoptr t1_iy7jq6f wrote
Dude, you’re high
[deleted] t1_iy7lnjs wrote
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MansfromDaVinci t1_iy7r2nd wrote
Early mammals were probably insectivores, spiders were lunch.
FM_LEGENDARY t1_iy7wv97 wrote
Dude, you’re high
markjritchie t1_iy7z4hx wrote
It depends how early. If we're talking really early, then they were far more intelligent than us.
Breadfop t1_iy7zjn7 wrote
Dude, you're high
kyunirider t1_iy81hpf wrote
No, this is only a modern human problem, in the past our ancestors were too busy surviving to give a shit about anything so insignificant and they saw that spiders keep bugs out of the cave.
anomthrowaway748 t1_iy88vtt wrote
If we’re talking really really early, the spiders would be scared of the ‘human’
100FootWallOfFog t1_iy8atqh wrote
Dude I am high and that shit doesn't make sense.
Thexin92 t1_iy8ccvw wrote
He's talking about mammals, not early humans. In ancient times, insects and spiders were of tremendous size due to a higher oxygen concentration in the atmosphere, while early mammals were the size of mice. Those days, spiders sat securely above almost all mammals in the food chain.
Aki_The_Ghost t1_iy8cox4 wrote
baumpop t1_iy8dhp0 wrote
Spiders were the size of dogs
baumpop t1_iy8doks wrote
Shinfo side note. Venom has evolved over 20 separate times on earth.
oldshitnewshit78 t1_iy8nxtw wrote
Actually spiders never really got that big, as far as we are aware.
baumpop t1_iy8ooif wrote
Interesting. We know for sure that scorpions, dragonflies, and certain worm types were hundreds of times larger than today's species.
Swampwolf42 t1_iy8r5wp wrote
baumpop t1_iy8tlwa wrote
I didn't say they were out of the water. The largest pre-spider on record was around 22 inches. Bout the size of my dog.
BuncleCurt t1_iy8twcg wrote
Wow, that'd be a really big lunch.
baumpop t1_iy8u1b9 wrote
Lunch? What are you a boomer?
Swampwolf42 t1_iy8v0zj wrote
That is an aquatic arthropod. Not a spider. So again, No.
The very first sentence in the article you linked: “If the original identification as a spider had been correct, Megarachne would have been the largest known spider to have ever lived.” (Bolding mine)
baumpop t1_iy8wtd7 wrote
Everything came from water.
Swampwolf42 t1_iy8xdh8 wrote
Very good. You get a gold star. That doesn’t mean the largest prehistoric spider was 22 inches. By your “logic” the largest chicken was 70 feet long.
JayManty t1_iy8xea9 wrote
You severely overestimate the intelligence of spiders and severely underestimate the intelligence of vertebrates
baumpop t1_iy8xgce wrote
I mean yeah.
Where'd the entomologist go?
[deleted] t1_iy8y0jm wrote
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[deleted] t1_iy91tg8 wrote
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IFrickinLovePorn t1_iy966qn wrote
Not really. Back then mammals were much smaller so our records aren't to scale
[deleted] t1_iy96ztm wrote
The largest spider ever likely exists today. The largest fossil of a spider ever found had a 1 inch body.
SuperCaffeineDude t1_iy98s1e wrote
Surviving encompasses not being bitten by snakes and spiders, they might not be such a problem in north Europe, but no ones odds of survival improve playing with animals that are often venomous.
Brandon432 t1_iy9a7pu wrote
Kind of doubt that. With just as many sources as you have provided, I imagine our instinctive fear of spiders comes from some evolutionary factors.
[deleted] t1_iy9a9d3 wrote
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Vladi_Sanovavich t1_iy9cn4l wrote
Mmhmm that's a whole lot of chicken. I wonder how many chicken nuggets we can make out of that?
-K_a_r_m_a- t1_iy9djzb wrote
I think at some point spiders were mammals. Have you seen what most animals evolved from?
Fun_Group261 t1_iy9enhw wrote
That would be the Goliath birdeater I thiiink?
mayaslaya t1_iy9f389 wrote
Tell me you're kidding?
Yalort t1_iy9fh4p wrote
Actually i think the closest common ancestors to spiders that mammals have would be the ur-bilatera, a marine worm. This split happened millions of years before mammals began.
No_Conversations t1_iy9ga8a wrote
i laughed out loud. me too bud
[deleted] t1_iy9gh62 wrote
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Arstanishe t1_iy9i0uz wrote
Well, that was maybe 250 mln years ago, and mammals only appeared maybe 80-100 mil years ago, when insects were already closer to today in size
cpq29gpl t1_iy9i32f wrote
Is that you, Ken M?
Trankalanka123 t1_iy9iapp wrote
Monkey and human share common ancestor. Monkey and human closely related. Monkey eat banana, monkey have opposable thumbs and hands. Human eat banana, human have opposable thumbs and hands. Monkey and human looks similar, but monkey and human not the same. Monkey not human, human not monkey.
Trankalanka123 t1_iy9ibip wrote
I tried to make it as simple as possible
DamionFury t1_iy9j6p8 wrote
Likely not solely to do with spiders, but we have an actual in-built ability to rapidly identify things like spiders in our environment. It's a phenomenon pretty specific to spiders and snakes. Here's a phys.org article from 2015 on our predisposition: https://phys.org/news/2015-04-human-spiders-scientific-focus.html
It is present very early on; as early as a few months old. This study found that presenting 5-month-old babies with pictures of shapes in 3 different configurations, one of which was a spider, resulted in the child focusing on the spider above other images.
Here's another article that talks about it. https://www.fatherly.com/health-science/when-do-babies-develop-fear-of-heights-snakes-and-spiders
Note: There's no evidence of an instinctual fear response; just the tendency to identify and fixate on spider and snake images. Still, the ability to identify them in our environment probably relates to survival; individuals that had that ability were more likely to survive and procreate.
caulkhead808 t1_iy9k411 wrote
cdh79 t1_iy9k46h wrote
I dunno, have you seen the state of some people these days?
Henwen t1_iy9l2jq wrote
That is amazing! Thank you for sharing.
baumpop t1_iy9l5uj wrote
Weren't they micro fauna initially? Like prey to pretty much anything?
Arstanishe t1_iy9lwgt wrote
Afaik, the first proto-mammals were therapsids, which were not that small. However, most mammals (or all?) I can't remember - came from rodent-like creatures after the cretaceous extinction event 65 mil ago. But that time insects were definitely even smaller...
crown_valley t1_iy9lxut wrote
Why is a 200 lb spider worse than a 200 lb crocodile, lion, bear, wolf etc? They would be a nuisance at best. We overpowered much bigger and scarier beasts. These big hypothetical spiders would never have been a match to our elaborate communication/team work and tool building, even in the stone age.
Sm4cy t1_iy9lz9x wrote
Even better
AtlasClone t1_iy9n802 wrote
Bruh I'm sick of people acting like spiders are in any way a threat. Unless you live in Australia they're the most inconsequential thing in the world. Walking through a cobweb was the least if early humans or mammals concers.
trekxtrider t1_iy9pegz wrote
Starship troopers kind of different
shokzz t1_iy9q3s8 wrote
What the …? This comes across as comedy and total fiction to me. Amazing that this little fella is real and how evolution has created such a unique animal.
slipperyShoesss t1_iy9ug71 wrote
What about dog spiders?
glowing-fishSCL t1_iy9xakm wrote
And in the present day, fear of spiders isn't as instinctual and universal as people think, I think most cultures have some strong feelings about spiders, but I know of at least one major culture (Arabic) where spiders are considered positively.
MansfromDaVinci t1_iyanj71 wrote
perhaps a more recent thing, like our fear of snakes. Big, clearly dangerous animals, with pointy teeth, like wolves and bears, we're just afraid of on principle. Wee venomous things, like snakes and spiders, prehaps we needed an instinctive fear of.
HighKiteSoaring t1_iyao4ik wrote
Idk bro. There used to be snakes the size of buildings, right?
ScoobyDeezy t1_iyathye wrote
I tend to think of most phobias as leftover evolutionary responses to existential dangers.
that_one_guy37559 t1_iyb0y7u wrote
What, they didn't have irrational fear like us, they would see them and eat them, no care at all
fatboi238 t1_iyb8rql wrote
how short is your dog
fatboi238 t1_iyb8vku wrote
not everything the sun didn't come from water
fatboi238 t1_iyb91t7 wrote
dude just ignored 4 points to call someone a boomer
ItSm3llsLikec4ke t1_iybwvfy wrote
Right? Felt a bit like monte python
-K_a_r_m_a- t1_iye6e82 wrote
My comment was a joke. Ive seen some prehistoric spiders, no joke i will shit myself
-K_a_r_m_a- t1_iye6ufc wrote
Had to google. Thanks for educating my mind. Ask me about anything but not spiders. I have a strong dislike towards anything with more than 4 legs and and intense fear for anything more that 6 legs.
-K_a_r_m_a- t1_iye6wrv wrote
It was a joke
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