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Spiders have been around for roughly 400 million years. That means they are about 170 centuries older than the first dinosaurs! The secret to their success is silk.
The first spiderwebs were probably just trip lines that signaled prey was in the spider’s web. The signal thread is a silk line connected from a spider in hiding to the middle of its web. When something gets stuck in the web, the spider can feel the vibrations. It jumps out and grabs the prey.
As more spider species evolved, the variety of webs grew. Scientists believe that tens of thousands of species have yet to be discovered. So the full tale of spiderwebs has yet to be spun.
