[wyattearp]

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself.....and snakes."

And spiders. They creep me out. Has anybody done a DNA analysis of spiders? Spiders are just so... alien.

[PaulJ]

Spiders are just so... alien.

There are theories that our fear of spiders is innate.

[Stultis]

Spiders are just so... alien

The marine ancestors of arachnids (spiders, scorpions and mites) are even more alien looking...

The biggest fossils known are more than six feet in length. This makes the Eurypterids or "sea scorpions" the largest arthropods that ever existed, so far as is known.

I think the closest living marine relative of the spiders would be another odd looking creature; the horseshoe crab.