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(WSVN) – If you needed something new for your nightmares, university biologists captured a chilling video of a giant spider eating an opossum.
University of Michigan biologists have published photos of large spiders in the Amazon rainforest attacking a number of other creatures, including frogs, lizards, snakes and even a small opossum.
The researchers recently published their findings in an article in the journal Amphibian & Reptile Conservation.
"This is an underestimated source of mortality among vertebrates," said Michigan University evolution biologist Daniel Rabosky. "A surprising amount of small vertebrate deaths in the Amazon is probably due to arthropods such as large spiders and centipedes."
The researchers claimed to have captured this horrific sight while they were in the Amazon Rainforest located near the foothills of the Andes, one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet.
In the evening, doctoral candidate Michael Grundler and two other students were walking in the forest, "hearing traces of digging in leaf litter".
"We examined and saw a large tarantula on an opossum," said Grundler, co-author of the newspaper. "The possum had already been gripped by the tarantula and was still struggling weakly at that time, but after about 30 seconds, he stopped kicking."
The researchers said that the tarantula (genus Pamphobeteus) was about the size of a plate, while the opossum of young mice was about the size of a softball. Grundler's sister, Maggie, filmed the video.
An expert from the opossum of the American Museum of Natural History later confirmed that it was the first documented example of a "great mygalomorphic spider feeding on". an opossum.
The researchers also observed spiders eating frogs and lizards, as well as a centipede eating a dead snake, which he had decapitated.
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