Newly Discovered Tarantula Has Horn on Its Back

As soon as John Midgley got back to camp and opened the small jar, he knew he had found something incredible.

In the light of the crackling fire in southeastern Angola, the entomologist examined a strange-looking tarantula he'd just captured. A large, slightly squishy horn sat squarely on the animal's back.

Midgely is not a spider expert, so he messaged photos of his find to his collaborator, Ian Engelbrecht at the University of Pretoria.

“Ian accused me of Photoshopping the pictures,” quips Midgely, of the KwaZulu-Natal Museum in South Africa. (Read about a new tarantula species found at high altitude.)