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Not a huge fan of spiders myself, but you gotta love the name – Tragloraptor (or “cave robber”), is a huge, newly discovered spider (2012) that is named for its cave home and spectacular, elongated claws…yes CLAWS.

A group of cave explorers and scientists have made a rare discovery…  an entirely new taxonomic family of spider in the caves of southern Oregon.

Larger than the size of a half-dollar coin, evidence suggests that Trogloraptor is a close relative of goblin spiders, but Trogloraptor possesses a mosaic of ancient, widespread features and evolutionary novelties like poisonous glands and two rows of teeth, or serrula.

Their extraordinary freaky, raptorial claws suggest that they are fierce, specialized predators, but their prey and attack behavior remain unknown.

Great, so now we have spiders with huge fangs and claws lurking around caves in western North America.

[Cheers geekosystem]