{
  "abstract": "Behavioural innovation, a key indicator of advanced cognition, has been well documented across animal taxa and manifests as creative problem-solving. Typical innovators such as apes and corvids can spontaneously solve complex, multi-step tasks individually without prior training. Innovative behaviours in arthropods—honeybees, bumblebees, and ants—are probably underestimated because their innovative behaviours are often considered products of associative learning, group-level processes, or one-step problem-solving. Here, we challenge this view by demonstrating spontaneous, individual-level innovation in nest construction by the social-living jumping spider Toxeus maxillosus, without prior training or external demonstration. Under four challenging laboratory conditions, T. maxillosus females exhibited the core components of typical innovative behaviours: environmental exploration, behavioural flexibility, insight, and action planning. Furthermore, in a vertical string-pulling task (a benchmark test of animal innovation), half of the spiders pulled an out-of-reach sponge upward and incorporated it into the inner wall of the device, thereby creating a suitable microstructure for nest construction. These behaviours demonstrate multi-step, goal-directed object manipulation. Our findings suggest that arthropods are capable of individual-level, spontaneous innovation involving planning and multi-step sequences, akin to those observed in typical innovators. We propose that a social lifestyle centred on prolonged maternal care—a trait shared by T. maxillosus and many vertebrate innovators—rather than large brain size or long lifespan, may be a critical evolutionary driver of such cognitive complexity. This study challenges the vertebrate-centric view of typical innovation and provides a new framework for understanding the evolution of cognition across phylogenetic scales.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, Hubei 430062, China",
    "Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan 666303, China",
    "University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China",
    "Department of Integrative Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620, USA",
    "Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan 666303, China",
    "Southeast Asia Biodiversity Research Institute, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan 666303, China"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 7,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Yi-Rong Wang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Chu Jiang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Yu Zeng"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4,
        5
      ],
      "name": "Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Jing-Xin Liu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Xiaoguo Jiao"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Zhanqi Chen"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/74kwwqp7v0y1d.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2025.527",
  "fulltext_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13720415/",
  "id": "74kwwqp7v0y1d",
  "issns": [
    "2095-8137"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2025.527",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Article"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1311|Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7133244168",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.zoores.ac.cn/en/article/pdf/preview/10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2025.527.pdf",
  "pmcid": "PMC13720415",
  "pmid": "42706796",
  "published": "2026-09-18",
  "publisher": "Editorial Office of Zoological Research, Kunming Institute of Zoology, The Chinese Academy of Sciences",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/74kwwqp7v0y1d.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-03T12:21:18Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13720415",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2025.527"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:1311|Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior",
      "subfield": "genetics-genomics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Creative problem solving in a jumping spider",
  "title_text": "Creative problem solving in a jumping spider",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-03T12:21:18Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/74kwwqp7v0y1d",
  "venue": "Zoological Research",
  "versions": []
}