Spiders can cause fear in arachnophobes due to an unusual number of legs and a curious way of movement, but a new study shows that they, in fact, do not need all these legs at all. The results of the new study show that even the loss of a quarter of all limbs cannot slow down spiders at all, writes iflsciens.
The loss of limbs is likely to reduce the speed of running in some spiders, but now scientists believe that not everyone. A new study, which has not yet been reviewed, examined in detail how young tarantulas compensate for the loss of their limbs - behavior known as autonomy - and are able to regenerate legs after molting. Scientists also studied how the regeneration of a new leg affects how the spiders move, and whether they behave differently, faced with a repeated loss of limbs.
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During the study, scientists used high -speed videos, which helped to record the run of spiders before and after losing their legs, their repeated height and re -loss. In their work, scientists focused on three things: spiders will have lower speed and stability of losing legs; It was assumed that the tarantulas would use a wider rack to compensate for the absence of limbs; It was believed that the gait of tarantulas would change.
Scientists have chosen for the study of Guatemal Tiger Tarantulas (Davus Pentaloris), as they run and can grow limbs within one to two months. In the course of research, scientists placed spiders in a transparent box with a camera to record their movements. Five spiders passed sequential legs of the legs removal - the remote legs were chosen so that the gait is maximally, as well as that it was the legs that are most often lost when interacting with predators in the wild.
According to the co -author of the study, Tony Kli, when the spiders became lethargic and did not move, scientists glued their two legs so that the tarantulas dropped them. When the spiders woke up, the scientists carefully poked them with a brush, until they almost dropped two legs.
During the study, scientists photographed spiders before and after the loss of two legs to track the changes in the gait. Scientists photographed tarantulas immediately after the loss of limbs, and then after 24 hours. Then the tarantula was left to grow the lost legs before the same legs were removed again.
The results of the work of scientists have shown that the loss of two limbs did not really slow down spiders. The team found that scientists could achieve a stable gait and speed within one day after the loss of two limbs. In simple words, spiders can quickly adjust their movement and very quickly achieve a stable way of movement.
The authors of the study believe that their work can help in the development of robotics, and can also be useful in the design of robots that adjust their movements after obtaining damage.
Previously, Focus wrote that scientists have discovered a new type of tarantula with “gold” hairs.