• webb@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
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    1 year ago

    Arachnids also include scorpians and ticks, so spiders it makes sense humans evolved that way. Perhaps some proto-spider was a lot more dangerous.

    Though, jumping spiders are pretty chill and what got me to be less afraid of spiders. They’re tiny, they’re adorable, they’re really friendly, and for some reason they didn’t trigger the same arachnophobic response in me. I have a theory that perhaps jumping spiders fed on ticks and other bugs that ancestors of ours might’ve had, and so we became less afraid of them. Spiders cooperating with other species isn’t new, such as the dotted humming frog.

    • Moegle@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      Jumping spiders have two large eyes, proportionately chunky bodies, and short, thick legs, making them the spiders that most resemble mammals. We’re pretty keen on mammals as a species, so it would make sense that a spider with mammal-like traits is less scary/creepy/“other” to us.