Cartwheeling Spider Rolls across the Desert

(Photo: Ingo Rechenberg)

While exploring a desert in Morocco, the computer scientist and bionicist Dr. Ingo Rechenberg found a strange spider. It appeared to move by rolling head over heels, similar to a human doing cartwheels.

Rechenberg gave it to spider expert Dr. Peter Jäger of the the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt, Germany. Jäger announced the discovery in a recent issue of Zootaxa and his naming of the species as Cebrennus rechenbergi after is discover.

(Video Link)

Rechenberg was deeply impressed by the spider's movement, so he built this robot that mimics it. He calls the robot Tabbot after "tabacha," which is the Berber word for spider. Watch it roll over the desert in this video.

-via Ace of Spades HQ