From the home of Braveheart comes video of Tarantulaheart.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) allowed scientists at Edinburgh University in Scotland to take detailed images of tarantula tickers beating while the arachnid was still kicking.
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"In the videos you can see the blood flowing through the heart and, tantalizingly, it looks as though there might be 'double beating' occurring, a distinct type of contraction which has never been considered before. This shows the extra value of using a non-invasive technique like MRI," said researcher Gavin Merrifield.
Merrifield recently presented the research at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Conference in Glasgow.
By using MRI, the researchers could see how the internal organs functioned under normal conditions and could measure heart rate and blood flow. Before they either had to slice the creatures open or measure their vital signs indirectly.
Getting the inside scoop on tarantula hearts isn’t just useful to understanding arachnid anatomy. It could have uses in other fields as well.
"One potential practical use of this research is to ascertain the chemical composition of spider venom," says Mr. Merrifield. "Venom has applications in agriculture as a potential natural pesticide. On the more academic side of things if we can link MRI brain scans with a spider's behaviour, and combine this with similar data from vertebrates, we may clarify how intelligence evolved."
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