Lainesblog Thinking Out Loud

 

 

Sometimes numbers are difficult to wrap your mind around.

The banana spider, or golden orb spider, or writer spider,

is the oldest surviving spider on earth.

To the tune of 165 million years!

That's a really really long time.

 

Compare that to humans and our nearest ancestors, the chimpanzee,

and we clock in at 5 million years.

That's really a long time too!

 

Humans reached anatomical modernity 200,000 years ago,

and behavioral modernity 50,000 years ago.

 

Ok, 50,000 years to get behavior right…

 

Are we still babes in the woods?

(Compared to the banana spider, yes!)

Not that everyone I know isn't kind and gentle, they are.

 

It's the way our governments behave that is worrisome.

 

Maybe soon, say in another 50,000 years, they will follow the lead of the people instead of the other way around.

 

Or am I dreaming?

 

 

 

 

 

This writer spider was found at Guana River State Park, Florida.