Quote Originally Posted by kitedemon View Post
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/21...expansion.html

Yup they have both inner ear and saccule, I would assume they are balance. I know the hear or feel, hard to place human sense on a reptile, vibrations through the ground with mandible quadrate and columela auris (column of the ear if my latin serves)

http://www.herpnation.com/hn-blog/sn...=john-c-murphy

I hope there is actually real study of wobble and what it actually is rather than a lot of guesses.

Wobble to me looks like a neuromuscular issue the muscles just are not doing what the mind wants but that is absolutely nothing more than a guess.
Question Alex:

A saccule is intricately linked to balance and equilibrium - correct?

Therefore if someone has proved that the spider genetics result in a deformation to the inner ear, it should be easy to find - correct?

Or does it sound like someone's attempt to sound scholarly to explain an unknown genetic snafu? To be clear, this idea of an inner ear abnormality has been tossed around for a few years, but like many other things, it has gained credibility just by being repeated often. I know of no studies done.......and I would hazard to say none exist.

FWIW: I have the Hartline pdf somewhere on my hard drive. It says pretty much the same thing that your link does.