Look at a massive tarantula slip an opossum as if nothing had happened

Tarantulas are often touted as crawling robots in horror movies, but it turns out that they are even more terrifying in nature. Watch the following video, which shows a plate-sized tarantula resulting in a baby opossum and crossing the soil of the Amazon jungle:

Filmed by scientists on the night of November 18, 2016, this is the first time that such an interaction between the two species is recorded on tape.

The film is part of a study published Thursday in Conservation of amphibians and reptiles which documents 15 predator-prey encounters between small vertebrates and arthropod hunters – such as spiders and centipedes – in the Amazon rainforest of the Peruvian lowlands.

"When we first met the two men, the opossum was still reacting and hitting weakly," said the authors, led by University of Michigan biologist Rudolf von May. "We observed the interaction for about five minutes, after which the opossum stopped all movement and the spider took it around a tree root. . "

Tarantula belongs to the genus Pamphobeteus, and von May's team said it was the size of a plate. These spiders tend to hunt at night and use venom to paralyze their prey.

The team has spent years cataloging similar interactions between vertebrates and arthropods, and the new study contains many other images of arthropods attacking small vertebrates. Some examples include tarantulas feeding on frogs and lizards, a centipede eating a snake and a bee eating frog eggs.

Read more: Watch this ingenious spider spin a casting for his broken leg

"[Spiders are] an underestimated source of mortality among vertebrates, "said co-author of the study, Daniel Rabosky, an evolution biologist at the University of Michigan, in a statement. A surprising amount of small vertebrate deaths in the Amazon is probably due to arthropods such as spiders and centipedes. "

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