A wandering spider preying on a lizard. Photo / University of Michigan
A wandering spider preying on a lizard. Photo / University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is uploading content for our nightmares.
Beware all arachnophobes and people who can't bear creepy-crawlies.
A Michigan-led team of biologists has documented 15 rare - and visually disturbing - encounters of the fatal kind in the Amazon rainforest.
They include a massive tarantula dragging a youngopossum.
"We were pretty ecstatic and shocked, and we couldn't really believe what we were seeing," doctoral candidate Michael Grundler said in a press release.
"We knew we were witnessing something pretty special, but we weren't aware that it was the first observation until after the fact."
The researchers also found a large centipede eating a dead coral snake that it had decapitated.
The photos are part of a new journal article, published in Amphibian & Reptile Conservation, which details instances of arthropod predators such as large spiders, centipedes and a giant water bug preying on small creatures such as frogs, lizards, snakes, and the opossum.
