Darwin’s bark spider – Caerostris darwini

lIn 2009, a new species of spider was identified, Darwin’s bark spider, Caerostris darwini . A spider with superpowers. It was named exactly 150 years after the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, in which he explained why life on Earth is so diverse and so complex. Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was built on the work of naturalists who were discovering thousands of new species across the world.

Darwin’s Bark Spider

That process of finding species new to science and naming them continues to this day. And it’s recognised in the name of this newly discovered arachnid. Darwin’s bark spider. Caerostris darwini. The spider occupies a unique niche. It can hunt where no other spider can. That spider creates the largest webs found anywhere on Earth.

In order to do that, it has to produce the strongest silk of any spider. They can span over 25 metres across lakes and rivers. And actually, no one knows how they get their webs across such a large distance.

But Darwin’s bark spider is just one of thousands of unique species of animals and plants that you find in Madagascar. The rainforests here are one of the most bio-diverse places on the planet. And each year, more discoveries are made as researchers try to understand why this tiny corner of the universe is so prolific.

Andasibe Field Station

Andasibe Field Station

All of these living things were found within a five-minute walk of the Andasibe Field Station. And the diversity is remarkable. There a chameleon there. These are orchids. This big green leaf is a traveller’s palm. There are four species of mushroom on that branch alone. Across Madagascar, there are over 14,000 species of plants, there are hundreds of species of mammals, birds and reptiles and over 90% of them are unique to this island.

How could it be that so many diverse living things, so beautifully adapted to their environment could have emerged from a universe that is governed by a simple set of natural laws?

The fact that we know the answer to that question is one of the greatest achievements in science. In this article, I want to explore how these endless forms, most beautiful, like the bark spider, have emerged from a lifeless cosmos.

Brian Cox with Lion Cub

Africa. A whole continent full of creatures utterly different from those in Madagascar. But the diversity of life doesn’t stop at what you see. Because within each individual lies another hidden world of complexity.

This, believe it or not, is the top predator in Africa. Or she will be when she’s older. She is only about eight weeks old now. Her body is built from a host of different molecules and by far the most diverse group are known as proteins.

We can see the proteins here. Those claws, so vital for the lions survival, are made of a protein called keratin. Her eyes, also absolutely vital for her survival, have a protein called opsin which is bound to a pigment to make structures called rhodopsins which allow her to see in colour and also to allow her to see very well at night when she’s hunting. There are also proteins in her muscles… myosin and actin, which are the things that allow her to run away.

The proteins in a lion come in countless different forms. But they all share something in common. A backbone of carbon. An atom that’s able to form long, complex molecules. Of all the ninety-two elements, there really is only one which has that appetite for bonding it’s four electrons – to share them with other molecules. Carbon will share those electrons with nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, and critically, with other carbons, to build up these immensely complex chains, the amino acids and the proteins which are the building blocks of life.

So to understand our planet’s endless diversity, we must begin by considering this life-giving element. After all, to build a lion, you must first build carbon. And that’s a story that stretches back to a time long before there were even stars in the universe.

Helium Clouds

13.5 billion years ago, just the few hundred million years after the Big Bang, the universe was a carbon-free zone. An infinite, sterile gloom of hydrogen and helium clouds. Until, one day, those vast clouds began to collapse under the force of gravity. Long before the solar system, Earth or life existed… the first stars were born.

The birth of the first stars did much more than just illuminate the universe, because that set in train a sequence of events which, ultimately, is necessary for the existence of life in the universe. And we can still see that process playing out in the universe today.

South Africa Large Telescope

South Africa Large Telescope

This is the brand-new South African large telescope. It’s mirror is 11 metres wide, making it the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. And it too, recently, helped to pin down what’s happening in an object some 650 million light years from Earth.

This beautiful, almost lifelike system is known simply as The Bird. It’s the spectacular result of what we used to think was two galaxies colliding. It’s events happening in the head of the Bird that are most interesting from a perspective of life in the universe. Because the head is formed by another galaxy, a third galaxy, an island of billions and billions of stars, colliding with two galaxies that form the wings and the body at a speed of around 250 miles a second.

Bird Constellation

The turbulence, the disturbance, that that creates is causing many new stars to be formed. These stars begin their lives by burning hydrogen, to produce ever more helium . but as they age, as the hydrogen runs out they turn to this helium . the temperature at their core rises increasing the chances of three helium nuclei fusing together to form a new element – carbon. That process has been going on for almost the entire history of the universe, back 13 billion years, and it’s the formation of stars that is the vital first step in the formation of life, because stars produce the heavy elements in the universe including carbon.

External Links

Darwin’s Bark Spider – Wikipedia Page

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