With four eyes, long legs and claws, a new species of sea spider was discovered lurking in the frosty depths of Antarctica.
Researchers happened upon the creature, known as the Austropallene halanychi, when they cast a trawl into the Ross Sea, a giant bay 200 miles from the South Pole, according to a study published in the journal ZooKeys.
In January 2013, scientists aboard the ship RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer pulled in the net and realized the unique specimen — which was collected close to 1,900 feet under water — didn’t fit any existing description.
It was much larger than other sea spiders, with legs measuring almost 1.2 inches, with “four darkly pigmented eyes, a short “swollen” abdomen, and a “wreath” of bristles surrounding its mouth, the study said.
One of its most distinctive features is its arm-like appendages, referred to as chelifores, that are “powerful” and “relatively large.”
They also have an “oblong” scape and a claw, which has two fingers, one fixed and one that moves. The two fingers close, so there is “no space present between fingers.” The tips of their claws are blackened.
Like other sea spiders, Austropallene halanychi’s vital organs are in their legs. They even use their legs to breathe, study co-author Andrew Mahon, told McClatchy News.
Sea spiders mate through pores in their legs, according to Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the specimen had “large” ovigers, the male sea spider organ that carries eggs released by females.
The creatures eat through a long proboscis, and the Austropallene halanychi’s is .1 inch, similar to a straw.
The newfound specimen was named after Kenneth M. Halanych, a “prolific marine invertebrate scientist.” His LinkedIn profile shows that Halanych is the executive director of the Center of Marine Science at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.
