Spiders' ancestors evolved to use their appendages in very weird ways.
There seems to be no ideal number of legs. Humans have two, dogs have four, insects have six and millipedes can have over 1,000. So what made spiders settle for eight legs?
The name"lobopod" doesn't refer to a single species but rather a large variety of species with rather simple bodies. Basically, they were wormlike creatures with segmented bodies. Each segment featured roughly identical pairs of short, stubby legs, and this pattern continued along the lengths of their bodies. As the lobopods evolved, they began specializing their legs and fusing body segments.
Because spiders, insects, crustaceans and millipedes all evolved from an ancestor that likely had a segmented body with a set of appendages on each segment, these species are just highly modified riffs on that basic plan. According to Patel, all arthropod appendages — including legs, antennae and even mandibles — can be traced back to a stubby lobopod appendage.
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