When one looks at a spider, many describe the creature as creepy, scary, venomous or dangerous. On the other hand, many ancient cultures associated the spider with cunning, determination and creation. While scorpions and ticks also feature in a couple of ancient myths, they are not nearly as popular as spiders, with even the scientific name of the taxonomic class that includes all arachnids, Arachnida, named after a character from an ancient Greek myth (Arachne).
Travelling through Brazil you find yourself in the Cerrado, a vast tropical savannah just southeast of the Amazon rainforest. Stopping under one of the trees, you sit down for a quick rest and to take in the natural beauty around you. Your eye then caches the movement of a fly landing on the rough bark of the tree and, ever ready as you are, you reach for your camera and inch closer to try and take a good macro photo.
The tail and sting of a South African burrowing scorpion (Scorpionidae: Opistophthalmus sp.) © Jan A. Neethling 2012
Scorpions have been around for more than 420 million years. Originally aquatic, they were some of the first creatures to venture onto land and have since taken up a completely terrestrial lifestyle. They occur on every continent except Antarctica, and are most prevalent in arid regions, though many species do occur in the tropics. They are amongst the most recognizable arachnids and are characterized by an elongate body, pincer-like grasping appendages (called pedipalps), four pairs of walking legs and a tail that terminates in a sting (telson).
Image: Fossil of Eurypterus remipes, a sea scorpion that lived 420 million years ago. © Millard H. Sharp 2017
How far back can you trace your family tree? A couple of generations to maybe a couple of hundred years? How about 460 million years? Because that is when the granddaddy of arachnids swam in the earth’s oceans, making the arachnid family tree truly ancient. And with more than 100 000 identified species living today, their family tree is not only ancient, but gigantic.
Certainly the most recognizable of all arachnids, spiders are ubiquitous little predators on every continent except Antarctica. Their lineage stretches back 380 million years, with some of the oldest known fossils such as Attercopus fimbriunguis dating from the Devonian period and still having segmented abdomens.