Tarantulas Have Silk In Their Feet...?

Yes, it's true. These horrifying spiders can actually do this. Most spiders catch themselves with webs, or can just withstand the impact. And Jumping Spiders hop from place to place. But when one of these furry frights falls it releases silk from its feet to catch itself. These threads are indistinguishable by the naked eye, but under a microscope you can see small bits of them. Claire Rind of the University of Newcastle has been researching this discovery, and predicts that these spiders could be a missing link connecting modern day web-spinning spiders and extinct silk-spinning spiders. So what do we know now? That you can probably expect to own a sweater made of spider silk in the future. Will they still be gross to some people? Yes. Will they disappear? Maybe.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110516075927.htm