Spider Spider Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs and chelicerae with fangs able to inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other orders of organisms. Spiders are found worldwide on every continent except for Antarctica, and have become established in nearly every habitat with the exceptions of air and sea colonization. , at least 45,700 spider species, and 113 families have been recorded by taxonomists. However, there has been dissension within the scientific community as to how all these families should be classified, as evidenced by
Arthropod micrograms (millionths of a gram), while the heaviest weigh over . Some living crustaceans are much larger; for example, the legs of the Japanese spider crab may span up to , with the heaviest of all living arthropods being the American lobster, topping out at over 20 kg (44 lbs). The embryos of all arthropods are segmented, built from a series of repeated modules. The last common ancestor of living arthropods probably consisted of a series of undifferentiated segments, each with a pair of appendages that functioned as limbs. However, all known living and fossil arthropods have grouped segments into