Vision shapes how many animals find food, avoid danger and navigate their world. In animals with two eyes, eye placement is ...

It's not easy to look at a sea spider and see an animal so representative of its kind that it may help scientists sort out the evolution of almost everything with eight legs. But that's the potential ...

Researchers sequenced the genome of a sea spider, revealing it lacks whole-genome duplication seen in related arachnids. This positions sea spiders near the base of the chelicerate family tree. The ...

Spiders’ ability to spin webs may be one consequence of a really big genetic mistake. A close look at the genetics and development of spinnerets — spiders’ silk-making organs — reveals that an early ...

Spider webs present an intriguing challenge to evolutionary biologists. These finely honed death traps come in many forms, from the trampoline-like construction of the sheet web spider, to the ...

A new study has revealed why some spiders possess venom that is far more potent than others. By analyzing the venoms of more than 70 different spider species, the team explored whether factors such as ...