Warning: This story contains disturbing images and video.
A warning to those with arachnophobia: the images and videos in this story may be nightmare fuel.
In a world first, researchers from the University of Michigan have found evidence of tarantulas preying on opossums, in a video they jokingly describe as the 鈥渟tuff of nightmares.鈥�
The footage shows the 鈥渄inner plate-size鈥� tarantula preying on a young opossum, picking up and dragging it across the forest floor to feed on it.
鈥淲e were pretty ecstatic and shocked, and we couldn鈥檛 really believe what we were seeing,鈥� doctoral candidate Michael Grundler said in a press release.
鈥淲e knew we were witnessing something pretty special, but we weren鈥檛 aware that it was the first observation until after the fact.鈥�
The footage was released as part of an article published in Amphibian & Reptile Conservation last month exploring the interactions between arthropods and small creatures in the Amazon.
The article compiles more than ten years of data, shedding more light on the unique predator-prey relationship arthropods have with other species in the Amazon.
Nearly all of the sightings were made at night, with team members walking slowly through the forest with flashlights and headlamps, listening intently for animal activity.
In the past they鈥檝e found that arthropods, like tarantulas, prey on all major vertebrate animal groups (any animal that has a backbone) including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
鈥淭his is an underappreciated source of mortality among vertebrates,鈥� said University of Michigan evolutionary biologist Daniel Rabosky. 鈥淎 surprising amount of death of small vertebrates in the Amazon is likely due to arthropods such as big spiders and centipedes.鈥�
Researchers say that the study offers an important look at the connections that shape the food web of the Amazon, in particular how spiders and other arthropods prey on larger vertebrate in a way that seems to be unique to the tropics.
But tarantulas weren鈥檛 the only arthropods that come out of the study scarier than ever.
One of the study鈥檚 other disturbing findings was a large centipede eating a dead coral snake that it had decapitated.
鈥淐oral snakes are very dangerous and can kill humans,鈥� study co-author Joanna Larson said. 鈥淭o see one taken down by an arthropod was very surprising. Those centipedes are terrifying animals, actually.鈥�
