Tiny little jumping spiders, with their magnificent eyes, seem to be able to do something we'd only ever seen before in vertebrates: distinguishing between animate and inanimate objects.
In a new test, wild jumping spiders (Menemerus semilimbatus) behaved differently when presented with simulated objects of both kinds, in ways that indicated an ability to discern between them.
The research doesn't just suggest that this ability can be found more widely in the animal kingdom than we knew, it demonstrates that the team's experimental setup can be used to test other invertebrates in the same way.
Jumping Spiders Seem to Have a Cognitive Ability Only Previously Found in Vertebrates
In a new test, wild jumping spiders (Menemerus semilimbatus) behaved differently when presented with simulated objects of both kinds, in ways that indicated an ability to discern between them.
The research doesn't just suggest that this ability can be found more widely in the animal kingdom than we knew, it demonstrates that the team's experimental setup can be used to test other invertebrates in the same way.
Jumping Spiders Seem to Have a Cognitive Ability Only Previously Found in Vertebrates