Just in time for Halloween, scientists in British Columbia have revealed two creepy-looking animals that no one had ever described before. They are sea spiders with long, thin legs, and one kind even has red eyes. Both were found in the Salish Sea, the waters between British Columbia and Washington State.
Despite their name, sea spiders are not true spiders. They are distant relatives of spiders that live only in the ocean. Most have a tiny body and long legs, and they crawl slowly along the sea floor. Cormac Toler-Scott, the University of British Columbia (UBC) researcher who led the study, said sea spiders “never made that transition to land.”
Between September 2023 and August 2024, divers collected more than 150 sea spiders from different places in the area, including Quadra Island and Vancouver. The team took detailed pictures of each one and studied its DNA. Two kinds did not match any known species. The results were published in the science journal Organisms Diversity & Evolution.
The first new species is called Callipallene pilosuspedes. Its name comes from Latin and means “hairy feet,” because fine spines cover its legs. It also has red eyes and a mouth with three lips, and it is only about one centimetre (less than half an inch) across. The second species, Tanystylum kiixin, is even smaller and has shorter legs. It is named after Kiixin, an old Indigenous village site near one of the places where it was collected. Its body is often covered with tiny parasites, small living things that live on another animal.
Up close, as Smithsonian magazine put it, both sea spiders look like something from a horror movie.
Scientists know of more than 1,300 kinds of sea spiders around the world, but new ones are rarely found in this area. These two are the first new sea spider species found there in about 100 years. Toler-Scott said many species are probably still unknown because few people have studied the area closely. “It’s everyone’s kind of dream to find new species, but it’s pretty uncommon,” he said.
Sources: NPR, Smithsonian, BBC Wildlife
With Halloween around the corner, researchers at the University of British Columbia have identified two creatures in the Salish Sea, the inland waters shared by British Columbia and Washington State, that had gone unnoticed by science. Both are sea spiders, spindly-legged ocean animals that Smithsonian magazine described as looking like something straight out of a horror movie.
The name is somewhat misleading. Sea spiders are not true spiders but a separate group of marine animals distantly related to them. Most consist of a tiny body perched on long legs, and they creep slowly across the seabed. As Cormac Toler-Scott, the UBC evolutionary biologist who led the research, put it, sea spiders “never made that transition to land.”
To find them, the team relied on divers, who collected more than 150 sea spiders between September 2023 and August 2024 at sites including Quadra Island, Victoria, and Vancouver, some at depths of up to 18 metres (60 feet). Each specimen was photographed in detail and its DNA analyzed. Two groups did not match any known species, and the researchers described them in the journal Organisms Diversity & Evolution.
The more striking of the pair, Callipallene pilosuspedes, measures only about a centimetre (less than half an inch) across. It has ruby-red eyes, a clawed feeding tube called a proboscis, and a three-lipped mouth fringed with sensory tendrils. Its name, Latin for “hairy feet,” refers to the fine spines along its legs, and it has a special pair of limbs that it uses for grooming.
Tanystylum kiixin is smaller still and stockier, with shorter legs, and its body is frequently covered in tiny parasites and bits of debris. It takes its name from Kiixin, an ancient Indigenous village site near one of the places where it was collected.
Scientists recognize between 1,300 and 1,400 sea spider species worldwide, compared with roughly 50,000 species of land spiders, and these are the first new sea spiders identified in the region in about 100 years. Toler-Scott believes more are still waiting to be found, largely because few researchers have looked closely at the area. “It’s everyone’s kind of dream to find new species, but it’s pretty uncommon,” he said.
Sources: NPR, Smithsonian, BBC Wildlife
