Behind this spider lies a few extremely special points, such as the fact that… it is not a true spider.
The natural world indeed contains everything. From the fiercest survival battles, mesmerizing beauties, to creatures… so bizarre that no one would think they actually exist.
Take, for example, the spider in the photo below; at first glance, it might seem like a Photoshopped image, but it is a real creature.
It looks like an ordinary spider, except that its body sprouts two horns resembling a devil’s face.
This image was captured by scientist Andreas Kay in July 2017 in Ecuador. It appears like a typical spider, but the body features two horns that look like a devil’s face. Some others say it resembles a black wolf, but with the ears of a rabbit.
And do you know what the strangest thing is? The creature above is not a spider, even though it looks just like one.
The strange spider has a cute horned head like a clay figure.
This peculiar creature is scientifically named Metagryne bicolumnata, but the locals refer to it as bunny harvestman or bunny rambutan. It belongs to a group of arachnid-like arthropods known as daddy long-legs, which includes over 6,600 species.
“It looks ‘dangerous’, but they are not venomous and do not pose any harm to humans“ – quoted Andreas Kay. “They have existed for at least 400 million years, even before the dinosaurs.”
Bunny harvestmen were first discovered by German arachnologist Carl Friedrich Reower in 1959. However, despite being known for quite some time, scientists are still unsure why they have such a bizarre appearance. It is known that some factor has led them to evolve to have black bodies, two ears, and two yellow dots that look like eyes.
An interesting point is that those two yellow dots are just false eyes. Their real eyes are located at the front of their heads.
Look closely, the two shiny black dots on the front are the real eyes.
According to Kay, they have a reason to possess this special shape, as they can “cosplay” as larger predatory species. However, this hypothesis remains unverified.
Moreover, there has never been any in-depth research conducted on this species, aside from a few studies published over 60 years ago. One reason is that Ecuador’s ecosystem is so diverse that researching it all is… quite challenging.
For a long time, scientists have regarded the Amazon rainforest as one of the richest ecosystems in terms of species diversity, and tropical rainforests in the Americas are richer in species than the wet forests of Africa and Asia.
Covering more than 7 million square kilometers, the Amazon rainforest spans countries such as Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and several smaller nations. The Amazon rainforest is home to a wide array of diverse animal and plant species.
The photos of the bunny harvestman captured by Andreas Kay have proven that the Amazon rainforest is home to many creatures with peculiar appearances. (Photo: Andreas Kay)
Among the largest rainforests in the Americas, the Amazon rainforest holds unparalleled biodiversity. Approximately 10% of all known species on Earth exist in the Amazon. This is where the largest concentration of surviving animal and plant species in the world is found.
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