Scientists have discovered that spiders can hear. This is very surprising since spiders do not have ears.

In this new study, scientists from Cornell University determined that spiders' leg hairs are so sensitive that they can pick up human speech vibrations from around seven meters away.

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According to arachnologist and lead author of the study, Paul Shamble from Cornell, this \finding is exciting since it challenges the idea that arachnids purely rely on their vision and touch.

Shamble said that spiders possess an acute sense of hearing as they can hear sounds from farther distances than previously thought, even if they do not have ears with eardrums like most animals which rely on long distance hearing.

During the study, the team obtained direct electrical recordings of North American jumping spiders. Before this study, the team has been investigating how these creepy, hairy creatures process visual information. They observed how their brains respond when chairs are moved, or someone clapped their hands in the laboratory.

According to the co-author of the study, Ronald Hoy from Cornell, technically spiders do not have the ability to hear sounds. Instead, the tiny hairs on their forelegs allow them to detect sound vibrations.

Spiders can apparently also "hear" a clap from more than five meters away. They are most sensitive to lower frequencies, ranging from 80 to 130Hz. This is comparable to sounds from a very deep male voice and wing beats of parasitoid wasps that prey on jumping spiders.

Shamble describes how spiders experience these sounds through their leg hairs, like a "really bad phone connection." He says that spiders can certainly know that humans are talking across a room,

The team suggests that other spider species may also possess similar hearing abilities such as wolf spiders and fishing spiders.

This study has been published in the journal, Current Biology.