FT263

A wave of nausea surges through my system as the pilot abruptly banks our light aircraft to the left. Suspended over the Nazca lines at an angle of 60º, my stomach turns and I force myself to keep breathing calmly. As we circle around the crisp figure of the Spider, 45m long, the guide draws attention to the elongated right leg of the creature and explains that this identifies the animal as a species of the arachnid order of Ricinulei, which reproduce by transforming a leg into a protrusible tube that can only be seen with the help of a microscope.