Research: Bigger Spiders Are Our Own Doing

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Published on September 3, 2014 11:46:34 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE2kJZSydCE

Duration: 4:22

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...Kind of. Urbanization is generally a negative change for wild animal populations, but some researchers have found at least one benefactor to building and sprawling cities: spiders. University of Sydney researcher Elizabeth Lowe studied the golden orb-weaver spider (Nephila plumipes)after she noticed they seemed like they might be plumper. Her research subjects included 222 different spiders from different locales in the city of Sydney. Her results found that heavier urbanization tended to result in bigger spiders. But why? Kim Horcher, Tim Frisch, and Jenna Busch (Legion of Leia) discuss.

Read more: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26085-swelling-australian-cities-harbour-ever-bigger-spiders.html