Why are spiders more scary than sharks?

[vorlon13]

My brother gags watching me eat crab or lobster since I have pointed out to him they are actually just great big bugs.


(More for me to eat)

[Anomalocaris]

My brother gags watching me eat crab or lobster since I have pointed out to him they are actually just great big bugs.


(More for me to eat)

Uh, not really. The last common ancestor between crabs and lobsters on the one hand, and anything we call bugs, like insects, spiders, and millipedes, on the other, certainly predates the great Cambrian explosion 550 million years ago. This means the evolutionary separation between crabs and spiders are nearly as great as that between spiders and humans.

[StealthySkeptic]

My brother gags watching me eat crab or lobster since I have pointed out to him they are actually just great big bugs.


(More for me to eat)

Uh, not really. The last common ancestor between crabs and lobsters on the one hand, and anything we call bugs, like insects, spiders, and millipedes, on the other, certainly predates the great Cambrian explosion 550 million years ago. This means the evolutionary separation between crabs and spiders are nearly as great as that between spiders and humans.

Yeah, but saying they're great big bugs is much funnier.

[CindysRain]

Coconut crabs look like spiders on steroids to me! hock:

No likey!

[Anomalocaris]

Yeah, but they don't bite, their claws, while strong enough to cause pain, is not strong enough to break skin or do damage.

Also, if you grab you with their claws, you can tickle their belly and they will let go.

Their meat is also unusually delicious.


But, if you really fear things that look like spiders, look at this spider crab. It's way bigger and more spider looking:

[Keri]

Coconut crabs look like spiders on steroids to me! hock:

No likey!

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Crabs you can tickle?!? Can I have one as a pet?

[Anomalocaris]

They can't be house trained. They will steal everything movable in your house to make their own den. But they do live longer than humans, so if you get a young one, you will not need to worry much about your pet dying on you.

[naimless]

what the flying jesus fuck die plz

[Ravenshire]

You overlook the fact that an untoward incident with 45 pistol has a much higher chance of killing you than a spider. In fact the chance of a random hit from a 45's killing you is like what, 25%? Really not that much less, certainly not orders of magnitude less, than that of a great white attack, or even that of an atomic bomb explosion near you.

An atomic bomb can certainly kill a lot more people in one go, yes. But when confronted by an untoward event with a 45, your personal chance of dying is actually in the same ballpark as if you were confronted with an untoward event with a atom bomb. Think about it. That's why it is rational to fear a 45.

The chance of any random spider bite turning out to be a bite from a brown recluse, and not just any bite from brown recluse but one of the few percent that has serious consequences is, what, one in a million?

So the chance of an untoward encounter with a spider having serious consequences is tiny, infinitesimal, next to that of an untoward encounter with a shark, a 45, or even an atom bomb.

That's why I think it is silly treat spiders you encounter with anything like the fear you feel in encounter with a shark, a 45, or an atom bomb.

Good job on totally misrepresenting my analogy. Straw-man much?

Your argument has been that since sharks are more dangerous, they should be more frightening. By that logic, atomic weapons should be more frightening than a .45.

This is simply not the case. Joe average is more frightened of a .45 precisely because he's far more likely to be confronted by one than an atom bomb. Spiders are generally held to be more frightening than sharks for the same reason.

Which would I rather face? Atom bomb vs. .45? The .45, obviously. Shark vs. spider? Again, obviously the spider.

But, is someone going to pull an atomic weapon on me and demand my money or accidentally nuke me in a drive-by nuking? No. Is a shark going to nestle down at the foot of my bed or nest in my firewood pile? Again, no. Honestly, I'm frightened of neither sharks (zero chance of confronting one) or spiders (extremely low chance of getting bitten by one, as long as I'm careful around their potential hiding places, who's toxicity is lethal), but I do have far more concerns about spiders than sharks because there is absolutely zero chance of me encountering a shark in the course of a normal day. Both Brown Recluse and Black Widows are a very real possible encounter (killed a Widow just last week and usually kill 3-4 of them each year) eight months out of each year where I live. It's already been proven that I am sensitive to the venom of the Recluse family and the one I was bitten by was a Recluse family member with relatively weak venom. If I were bitten by a full grown Brown Recluse, that may well get very ugly.

Personally, if there are animals I fear, it would be coyotes (have observed them in the greenway behind my house), cougars and/or bears. All three of these are legitimate threats along the front range of the Rockies. Granted, I'd have to get out of town for cougars or bears to be more than a passing concern, but I can state as fact that I have never been as frightened for my own life as I was the time I saw a cougar charging my direction. Fortunately she, like Elmer Fudd, was hunting rabbits.

[Sejanus]

Good job on totally misrepresenting my analogy. Straw-man much?

Your argument has been that since sharks are more dangerous, they should be more frightening. By that logic, atomic weapons should be more frightening than a .45.

This is simply not the case. Joe average is more frightened of a .45 precisely because he's far more likely to be confronted by one than an atom bomb. Spiders are generally held to be more frightening than sharks for the same reason.

Which would I rather face? Atom bomb vs. .45? The .45, obviously. Shark vs. spider? Again, obviously the spider.

But, is someone going to pull an atomic weapon on me and demand my money or accidentally nuke me in a drive-by nuking? No. Is a shark going to nestle down at the foot of my bed or nest in my firewood pile? Again, no. Honestly, I'm frightened of neither sharks (zero chance of confronting one) or spiders (extremely low chance of getting bitten by one, as long as I'm careful around their potential hiding places, who's toxicity is lethal), but I do have far more concerns about spiders than sharks because there is absolutely zero chance of me encountering a shark in the course of a normal day. Both Brown Recluse and Black Widows are a very real possible encounter (killed a Widow just last week and usually kill 3-4 of them each year) eight months out of each year where I live. It's already been proven that I am sensitive to the venom of the Recluse family and the one I was bitten by was a Recluse family member with relatively weak venom. If I were bitten by a full grown Brown Recluse, that may well get very ugly.

Personally, if there are animals I fear, it would be coyotes (have observed them in the greenway behind my house), cougars and/or bears. All three of these are legitimate threats along the front range of the Rockies. Granted, I'd have to get out of town for cougars or bears to be more than a passing concern, but I can state as fact that I have never been as frightened for my own life as I was the time I saw a cougar charging my direction. Fortunately she, like Elmer Fudd, was hunting rabbits.

Wouldn't be too sure of that if I were you.