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REMEMBER last week when I told you about those silk crosses in the webs of our local orb-weaving spiders? And that they served essentially the same purpose as tape on a sliding glass door: to keep large critters from blundering into the webs and tearing them apart. Well, French researchers have now discovered that spider webs can not only warn you to keep away, they can tell you something about the spider that built the web.

They’ve discovered that young spiders weave webs with perfect angles and regular patterns, but as they age, their webs deteriorate, showing gaping holes and erratic weaving. And by using spiders as a simple model, this research may provide insight into how aging affects behavior in other organisms, including humans.

The research used a common European house spider. They only live for about a year and have a very simple nervous system which makes them good candidates to shed light on the complexities of how aging can affect behavior. The webs of the spiders were assessed throughout their lifetime using measures such as the regularity of web structure, angles between the strands, and whether there were any holes; and this was the result.

The left web was woven by a 17-day-old spider and the right web was woven by a spider that was 188 days old.
So ... if you’ve been experiencing some gaps in your webs, ladies and gentlemen, it could just be related to how old you are!

Our next story is a remarkable tale of discovery. Even in this day and age when humans cover the planet, it’s not usual for a scientist to discover a new species of animal. Discovering a new genus, the next step up in the classification chain is much rarer, and discovery of new families (the next step up) is almost unheard of. Now imagine that this astounding discovery has been made in what is essentially our own back yard. Hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen. It’s true.

Scientists at the Smithsonian have discovered a remarkably primitive eel in a fringing reef off the coast of the Republic of Palau. This fish exhibits so many primitive anatomical features unknown in the other 19 families and more than 800 species of living eels that it has been classified as a new species belonging to a new genus and family.

The new species was named Protoanguilla palau, and it has many primitive physical traits, like a second upper jaw bone and fewer than 90 vertebrae that have only been found in fossils from the Cretaceous (140 million to 65 million years ago). Still other traits, like a full set of bony toothed "rakers," in the gill arches, are a common feature in most bony fishes, but not found in either fossil or living eels.

"The equivalent of this primitive eel, in fishes, has perhaps not been seen since the discovery of the coelacanth in the late 1930s," said Dave Johnson, ichthyologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and lead author of the team's research. "We believe that such a long, independent evolutionary history, dating back to the early Mesozoic (about 200 million years ago), retention of several primitive anatomical features and apparently restricted distribution, warrant its recognition as a living fossil."

"The discovery of this extraordinary and beautiful new species of eel underscores how much more there is to learn about our planet," Johnson said. "Furthermore, it brings home the critical importance of future conservation efforts – currently this species is known from only 10 specimens collected from a single cave in Palau."

Makes you wonder what’s lurking in the underwater caves around Guam, doesn’t it?

Cruise on over to The Deep website to learn more about spiders, eels and many other topics. Enjoy!