The origin of orbs

Spiders responsible for the majestic feats of architecture called orb webs may have evolutionarily diverged from a single weaver. Though modern-day spiders spin silken snares of many different shapes and sizes, arachnids belonging to the Orbiculariae taxon — the orb weavers — can most likely trace their ancestry to a web designer of the prehistoric kind, an international team of researchers reports November 2 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.