Antarctica - Creepy crawly alert! In the icy South Atlantic, researchers have photographed a fascinating-looking at a depth of over a mile.
In the icy South Atlantic, researchers have photographed a fascinating-looking creature at a depth of over a mile. © Collage: Screenshots/Facebook/Schmidt Ocean Institute
Scientists from the non-profit Schmid Ocean Institute recently set off for the extremely remote South Sandwich Islands.
Now the researchers have shared images of a particularly mysterious deep-sea dweller .
"This is a pycnogonid. Distant cousins of the land spiders you know and fear," the researchers explain in their post.
They go on to explain that sea spiders are classified into the order Pantaproda – aka "all legs."
The spooky critters, which lack lungs and breathe through their exoskeletons, come in a vast range of sizes.
The Antarctic variety is closer to one end of the spectrum, however... brace yourselves, spider haters.
"They are abundant and *abundantly large* in polar regions due to deep-sea gigantism," the scientists write.
"Immense pressure and frigid temperatures, while insurmountable obstacles to land-lovers like humans, allow some animals to have very slow metabolisms and the ability to reach gargantuan proportions," they continue.
"So, while you might observe a sea spider in a tidepool just a few millimeters big, one could have a 60-centimeter legspan here in Antarctic waters."
According to wildlife filmmaker Leo Richardson, "The buoyancy of ocean life means they don’t have to work against gravity, and it is this that allows many of them to grow to such immense sizes without collapsing under their own weight."
