Mecysmauchenius sp1, dorsal view

Mecysmauchenius sp1, dorsal view: This species uses power-amplified cheliceral strikes; this video was recorded at 20,000 frames per second (fps), but is playing at 20 fps, so in real life the movements would be 1,000 times as fast. At 20,000 fps the high-speed camera records at a small frame size (255 x 60 pixels), making it difficult to capture the entire specimen in the frame. A team of researchers led by Smithsonian scientist Hannah Wood has discovered that trap-jaw spiders have a surprising ability to strike their prey at lightning speed and with super-spider power, according to new findings reported in the scholarly journal Current Biology.