Lanigeris aranea

The Earth was a totally different place around five million years ago. The creatures that lived on the Earth back then were somewhat different as well. Several looked similar to their modern-day counterparts, with one not-so-subtle difference. Back then, they were giants.

And very woolly. Well some of them.

The Woolly Mammoth is one of the woolly creatures of yesteryear that is particularly well known to virtually everyone today… and possibly the folk who lived in those days as well. The Woolly Rhinoceros is another, although slightly less known. Other creatures were even more rare… the Woolly Hippopotamus for one; the Woolly Fish for another, and the creature that is featured in the image above… the very first woolly jumper to have ever existed, the Woolly Spider… or, to be more accurate, lanigeris aranea.

Lanigeris aranea lived almost everywhere. Under floorboards, inside cave walls, on Woolly Mammoths backs. The Earth was literally covered in the creatures, that were the size of a largish computer mouse… legs made it seem even larger.

They still had the eight legs that their more modern, and much smaller descendants, the common House Spider have, but apart from that they couldn’t be any more different.

They had two very sharp fang-like protrusions underneath their jaws, which were used to help them with climbing rather than eating. They had pincers on every leg, which also helped with climbing, but these were used to keep hold of their prey.

They’d be able to leap, sometimes up to eight feet in the air, from standing, to catch their latest meal with pinpoint accuracy. No webs were needed for these guys, they knew exactly what they were doing.

They were around in the days of the dinosaurs. They knew how to survive… and how to keep warm.

Their bodies and legs were covered in a thick wool. Well, thick for spider’s standards anyway. This wool allowed them to stay afloat in water, glide on the wind, cling to leaves and grasses in the wind… and as such they could be found everywhere. However, they needed to shed their wool regularly, especially when in warmer climates, and this wool started to cause problems with the eco systems of the time.

The arachnids evolved over time, shrinking in size to become the House Spider, however some retained their fabulous leaping capabilities. But luckily, not their wool. Imagine having to add cleaning up spider’s wool to a list of daily chores?

This week’s Illustration Friday theme is Wool, and I was completely uninspired as to what I could use for my illustration. However, as luck would have it, my Encyclopaedia Compositus fell open at the very page of the Woolly Arachnid. And from there, the inspiration for my illustration was born.