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Spiders have 8 eyes

Tom Jacob

12 nov 2021

Spiders don’t have necks, so they can’t turn their heads to look at things like we can.

Humans have two eyes that face forward. Our eyes are very good at seeing colours and shapes. But spiders, as here this Jumping spider, are active hunters, like tiny lions chasing down their prey (bugs). They have eight eyes: two very large front eyes to get a clear, colour image and judge distance, and extra side eyes to detect when something is moving.
Spiders don’t have necks, so they can’t turn their heads to look at things like we can. Having extra eyes around their heads is one way that spiders see more of the world around them, helping them to quickly spot prey or a potential predator.
Human eyes and spider eyes also do different jobs. Our two eyes are very complex and are good at doing many jobs at once, while spiders have different sorts of eyes that do different jobs.

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