Scientists have uncovered a nearly perfectly preserved spider fossil in northern China, dating back 165 million years to the middle Jurassic period. The species, Eoplectreurys gertschi, is a rare find ...

Jumping spiders (Salticidae) are a recently evolved family of spiders. They are known for their distinctive large eyes and ability to jump long distances relative to their small size. Australia has ...

Over 500 million years ago, a small marine creature swam through Cambrian waters. Its name: Mollisonia symmetrica. Long thought to be a distant relative of modern horseshoe crabs, new research now ...

A new analysis of an exquisitely preserved fossil that lived half a billion years ago suggests that arachnids—spiders and their close kin—evolved in the ocean, challenging the widely held belief that ...

Whether you love spiders or can't be within 10 feet of them, you probably think of them crawling around on land. And based on the fossil record, most researchers would probably say the same thing. For ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. Long before modern predators stalked Madagascar’s forests, ...