There are some deadly discoveries that you may find exciting---but only from a safe distance. A scientist from Queensland discovered 11 unknown species of trapdoor spiders.
The golden trapdoor spiders were found in forests as well as mountains of Cape York in the northern areas, right up to Lamington National Park in the Gold Coast Hinterland. Jeremy Wilson, a PhD student at Griffith University, worked with Queensland Museum to ferret them out.
As most of them disappear underground much of the time, they have been difficult to track. So far, just four species of golden trapdoor spiders had been found here in Queensland.
The problem is that the spiders may even become extinct before anyone knows that they exist. So it is important to keep track of these vanishing creatures before they vanish completely from existence.
"Some of the species might only occur in one particular forest or mountain. So if you're going to take out a forest for commercial reasons, you could take out an entire species. It's important we know they're there so we can take them into account as development continues," Wilson said.
One type living near Gympie on the Sunshine Coast looks interesting. "Normally a trapdoor burrow has a door like a bath plug that sits in the hole. But the door for this species' burrow sticks up like a little turret, the lid is too big and it has little leaflets like a clover coming off the side," he said.
"There has to be an evolutionary reason for them to make the burrows like this, there have to be strong pressures for them to do that because it's a lot of effort," Wilson said.
The intriguing point is that no one's been bitten by these species, so what happens when they bite is unknown.
Still, it's always better not to find out the hard way. After all, you may not even be alive to tell people how it felt----or even that you were killed by this interesting guy.
