Spiders Getting Bigger -- Global Warming to Blame?

A wolf spider walks across a leaf in Ohio. An Arctic wolf spider species, Pardosa glacialis, has grown larger exoskeletons as temperatures have warmed in northern Greenland, a May 2009 study says.

As if global warming isn't giving us enough to worry about, now scientists say it could lead to bigger—and possibly more—spiders of at least one species.

A group of Danish scientists wondered whether global warming would make the hairy, meat-eating wolf spiders of northeastern Greenland bigger, since longer summers mean more hunting time. The little-known species, Pardosa glacialis, grows as long as 1.6 inches (four centimeters), study co-author Toke Høye of Aarhus University estimates. Read Full Story