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Are spiders turtlely enough for the Turtle Club? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (7 children)

The sizes make sense - the turtle is on the smaller end and likely a juvenile, but both seem appropriately sized - the spiders can grow that big, especially if female.

I found this in a group for spider enthusiasts - these are the kinds of geeks that will look at a spider leg and get it down to class. AI is not good at generating invertebrate species specific traits yet. While this is pretty spectacular - not a daily event - these are both species that can be found in the same area, and these spiders will attack vertebrate pray.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

It's not a spider preying on a vertebrate that is hard to believe, it is the lifting. Even ignoring the physics of the situation, I don't think fishing spiders hunt that way.

People act like they've forgotten that there are other ways than AI to fake an image.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Here’s one eating a frog.

collapsed inline media

What specifically about the physics of the situation is making you suspicious? I’ve worked in an invertebrate lab, admittedly primarily with ants, and nothing about this raises alarm bells.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I imagine the weight of that turtle to be considerably more than that frog.

Also how do you think that spider is holding that turtle? Just what do you think has a grip on what?

Also zoom in and notice the odd gray smudging along the spider leg that is in front of the turtle shell. I'm no Photoshop expert but that looks suspicious to me.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Spiders routinely hold onto 100x more than their weight. Are you basing any of this on a knowledge of invertebrate biology? Ants can do similarly impressive feats - that’s something I will stand firmly by, as someone who’s name is in papers in ant research.

My actual degree is in physics too, and I’ll say that often things that seem counterintuitive are entirely supported by physics ;)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Every picture of a fishing spider I can find is holding its (smaller than this turtle) prey at the water's edge, not dangling upside down with it in midair. They hunt by walking on the water, not by dangling and snatching from above. Are we to believe it caught its prey the normal way and then walked it up to that awkward position?

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