A huge spider trails the opossum across the Amazon rainforest in a terrifying video

A plate-sized tarantula attacked and killed an opossum in a video captured by researchers that looks like a scene from a horror film.

Researchers from the University of Michigan shared the video on Thursday with an article in "Amphibian & Reptile Conservation" describing this strange encounter.

In November 2016, the team "heard drafts in the litter" during a night survey in the Amazon rainforest, said Michael Grundler of the University of Michigan. He and his colleagues then watched a tarantula attack a mouse opossum, hitting it in its According to the report, a five-minute fight ensued, where the opossum, which was about the size of a softball, tries to get away from the eight-legged insect. The spider eventually wins. A video shows the spider then drives the opossum.

The American Museum of Natural History told researchers at the University of Michigan that it was probably the first time that a large spider of this type was recorded in the summer. take an opossum.

"We were ecstatic and shocked and we could not really believe what we were seeing," Grundler said in a statement.

Warning: Readers might find the image disturbing below.

The document, which includes observations from 2008 to 2017, also reports large spiders attacking frogs and a lizard. Another frightening sight: a team watched a big centipede eat a live snake, and another centipede eating a dead snake in decapitated coral.

"Coral snakes are very dangerous and can kill humans," said Joanna Larson, co-author of this study, Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan. "To see one who was taken by an arthropod was very surprising. These centipedes are terrifying animals, actually.

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