Present-day Illinois is no Brazil or West Africa when it comes to arachnoid superlatives. There are no venomous tarantulas or nine-inch scorpions hiding among the prairie grass, but fossils discovered in the state’s coal measures prove that such critters did once roam the area when it was part of the supercontinent Laurasia. A new study says that one of these arachnids had traits unheard of, such as legs covered in spikes. The study, published in a May issue of the Journal of Paleontology, describes the species as Douglassarachne acanthopoda—the “acantho”…
