Spiderweb silks and architectures reveal millions of years of evolutionary ingenuity - 3 Quarks Daily

Spiderweb silks and architectures reveal millions of years of evolutionary ingenuity - 3 Quarks Daily

Ella Kellner in The Conversation: As a materials scientist who studies spiders and their silks, I am curious about the relationship between spiderweb architecture and the strength of the silks spiders use. How do the design of a web and the properties of the silk used affect a spider’s ability to catch its next meal? Spider silk has a long evolutionary history. Researchers believe that it first evolved around 400 million years ago. These ancestr…