A friend got mad the other day because on a recent list of mine (52 animals that would make fantastic sports mascots) I didn’t include camel spiders. In fairness, they do have a good name that could’ve worked in this situation — The Carolina Camel Spiders does have a nice ring to it — but I just didn’t know much about them, which invariably led down an internet rabbit hole of information. Turns out, they’re pretty interesting creatures.

Camel spiders aren’t venomous and they don’t specifically go after humans, but that have been known to chase after them (they can run up to 10 mph), which is pretty scary. There’s also this little tid bit from National Geographic:

These hardy desert dwellers boast large, powerful jaws, which can be up to one-third of their body length. They use them to seize their victims and turn them to pulp with a chopping or sawing motion. Camel spiders are not venomous, but they do utilize digestive fluids to liquefy their victims’ flesh, making it easy to suck the remains into their stomachs.

And then there’s the videos. Oh, there are plenty of videos. Like this one we found from last year, which saw a camel spider take on a scorpion in nasty fight.

So, in conclusion: Yes, I should have included camel spiders on the list. They are most certainly worthy of that high honor.