Arthropods in film Arthropods in film Arthropods, mainly insects and arachnids, are used in film either to create fear and disgust in horror and thriller movies, or they are anthropomorphized and used as sympathetic characters in animated children's movies. There are over 1,000,000 species of arthropods, including such familiar animals as ants, spiders, shrimps, crabs and butterflies. Early 20th century films had difficulty featuring small insects due to technical difficulties in film-stock exposure and the quality of lenses available. Horror movies involving arthropods include the pioneering 1954 "Them!", featuring giant ants mutated by radiation, and the 1957 "The Deadly Mantis". Films based on
Opabinia unusual lateral lobes with gills persuaded him that it may have been a representative of the ancestral stock from which both the annelids and arthropods arose. In 1985 Derek Briggs and Whittington published a description of "Anomalocaris", also from the Burgess Shale. Swedish palaeontologist Jan Bergström suggested that the two animals were related, as they shared lateral flaps with gills, stalked eyes and other features; and he classified them as primitive arthropods, although he considered that arthropods are not a single phylum. In 1996 Graham Budd found what he considered evidence of short, un-jointed legs in "Opabinia". His examination of