Deep-sea spider discovered on the ocean floor near Antarctica: what makes it unique

Researchers from the Schmidt Institute of Oceanology have captured a rare phenomenon on video - a huge sea spider the size of a dinner plate at a depth of about 2 kilometers. The discovery was made near the South Sandwich Islands, in the icy waters near Antarctica.

Sea spiders, also known as pycnogonids, are only distantly related to common land spiders. In the polar regions, they can reach impressive sizes - more than 50 cm in paw span. This is explained by the phenomenon of "deep-sea gigantism", when organisms at great depths significantly exceed the size of their shallow-water relatives. The Independent writes about this.

This phenomenon has been observed in many deep-sea creatures, including the colossal squid, the great red jellyfish, the deep-sea stingray, and the drop octopus. Scientists attribute this gigantism to several factors. First, low temperatures at great depths contribute to a slow metabolism. Secondly, the increased buoyancy in water allows organisms to overcome gravity and grow larger without collapsing under their own weight.

To date, scientists have identified about 1500 species of sea spiders, united in the group Pantapoda (which translates as "all legs"). These creatures have unique features: they breathe through an exoskeleton, have no poisonous glands, and feed on soft-bodied organisms, sucking their contents through a special tubular structure - the proboscis.

The size of marine spiders is striking in its diversity - from microscopic individuals to giants the size of a human face. However, the study of these and other deep-sea creatures remains a difficult task due to the inaccessibility of their habitat even for modern underwater equipment.

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