Twerking spiders? Really, evolution?

One of my favorite things about evolution is how over time the same solutions to various problems have been worked out by very disparate species over the vastness of time. For example, both mammals and fish have worked out the whole living-in-water thing. Marsupials like kangaroos and rats have both worked out hopping as a means of propulsion, with giant, energy-storing leg tendons. Succulent planets evolved separately in the Americas and Africa, with thick, non-porous exteriors that help store water in dry environments. If animals need to do it to survive more effectively, time and natural selection have worked out how to do it. It's known as convergent evolution.

But a link between the mating behavior of peacocks and...spiders? Really, evolution? It turns out, yeah, really. There's a tiny little jumping spider in Aussie that has evolved a beautiful booty-shaking mating dance that is reminiscent of peacocks and birds of paradise. Check out the video below. Sorry about the commercial at the beginning, but you can skip it after 5 seconds. The spider-twerking starts at the 3:00 mark.

(Credit: Discover Magazine online. Also, I originally wrote this post with a title inspired by one of my favorite Tumblr feeds, called WTF Evolution? I went over to the site to grab the URL for the citation, and what were they featuring? Peakcock spiders! That's what I call convergent blogging!)

Comments

A view from your shut down

The Daily Dish has been posting reader emails reporting on their " view from the shutdown ." If you think this doesn't affect you, or if you know all too well how bad this is, take a look at the growing collection of poignant stories. No one is in this alone except for the nutjobs in the House. I decided to email Andrew with my own view. I plan to send a similar letter to my congressperson. Dear Andrew, I am a professor of astronomy at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). The CfA houses one of the largest, if not the largest collection of PhD astronomers in the United States, with over 300 professional astronomers and roughly 100 doctoral and predoctoral students on a small campus a few blocks west of Harvard Yard. Under the umbrella of the CfA are about 20 Harvard astronomy professors, and 50 tenure-track Smithsonian researchers. A large fraction of the latter are civil servants currently on furlough and unable to come to work. In total, 147 FTEs...

The Long Con

Hiding in Plain Sight ESPN has a series of sports documentaries called 30 For 30. One of my favorites is called Broke which is about how professional athletes often make tens of millions of dollars in their careers yet retire with nothing. One of the major "leaks" turns out to be con artists, who lure athletes into elaborate real estate schemes or business ventures. This naturally raises the question: In a tightly-knit social structure that is a sports team, how can con artists operate so effectively and extensively? The answer is quite simple: very few people taken in by con artists ever tell anyone what happened. Thus, con artists can operate out in the open with little fear of consequences because they are shielded by the collective silence of their victims. I can empathize with this. I've lost money in two different con schemes. One was when I was in college, and I received a phone call that I had won an all-expenses-paid trip to the Bahamas. All I needed to d...

back-talk begins

me: "owen, come here. it's time to get a new diaper" him, sprinting down the hall with no pants on: "forget about it!" he's quoting benny the rabbit, a short-lived sesame street character who happens to be in his favorite "count with me" video. i'm turning my head, trying not to let him see me laugh, because his use and tone with the phrase are so spot-on.

Mahalo.ne.Trash

Search This Blog