A close look at shallow waters between Canada and the United States uncovered creatures with striking features—and raised questions about how much remains undocumented.
In the Salish Sea, between Canada’s British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington, scientists have described two previously unknown species of sea spiders. They discovered them during dives at depths of up to 18 meters between September 2023 and August 2024.
As mentioned by CNN
A sea spider with hairy legs and three lips
One of the new species was named Callipallene pilosuspedes. Long, curved spines grow along the lower parts of its legs, and it has three lips near its triangular mouth. The animal also has red eyes and claws. The species’ name comes from Latin words meaning “hairy” and “feet.”
According to the University of British Columbia, this sea spider has flexible appendages that it can use to clean its body. Under a microscope, researchers observed the animal wrapping them around its legs and cleaning them with comb-like spines.
The second species has black eyes
The other newly discovered species, Tanystylum kiixin, is distinguished by its black eyes, claws with thickened tips, and an abdomen shaped like an hourglass. The appendages it uses to carry eggs are shorter and less flexible, so the animal cannot clean itself effectively. Small parasites were also often found on it.
The name “kiixin” is associated with the sound of waves breaking near the site of an ancient Indigenous settlement. The species was found there.
Marine biodiversity has not been fully explored
Lead author Cormac Toler-Scott studied sea spiders during his master’s degree in zoology at the University of British Columbia. He was interested in how climate change and human activity affect marine invertebrates. At the same time, he found that little is known about the species and their way of life in the Salish Sea: before this study, only 17 sea spider species had been reliably documented there.
Scientists have described nearly 1,400 species of these animals worldwide. Despite their name, sea spiders are not true spiders but belong to a related group of arthropods that also includes scorpions and horseshoe crabs.
Describing these newly discovered shallow-water inhabitants will help document the Salish Sea’s biodiversity more fully. This is especially important for its coastline, where many people live and human activity is expanding rapidly.