{"id":612632,"date":"2026-09-26T18:12:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T18:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/612632\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T18:12:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T18:12:29","slug":"new-hairy-legged-three-lipped-red-eyed-sea-spider-species-discovered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/612632\/","title":{"rendered":"New hairy-legged, three-lipped, red-eyed sea spider species discovered"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex\u2019s Perpetual Planet Initiative<\/a> has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action.\n<\/p>\n

\n If the sight of a spider<\/a> already makes your skin crawl, you might find the two sea spider species newly discovered by scientists even more unnerving.\n <\/p>\n

\n Researchers in Canada discovered two previously unknown sea spider<\/a> species during scuba dives, up to 18 meters (59 feet) deep, between September 2023 and August 2024 in the Salish Sea<\/a>, which sits between the western Canadian province of British Columbia and the US state of Washington.\n <\/p>\n

\n One of the species has long, curved spines that cover the spider\u2019s lower legs, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Organisms Diversity & Evolution<\/a>. For that reason, it is named Callipallene pilosuspedes, with \u201cpilosus\u201d being the Latin for \u201chairy\u201d and \u201cpedes\u201d meaning \u201cfeet.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The creature, which has a slender trunk, also has red eyes, three lips at the opening of its triangular mouth and claws.\n <\/p>\n

\n The species also sports \u201chighly dexterous\u201d ovigers \u2014 appendages that look like legs but are not used for walking \u2014 that \u201ccan function as grooming tools,\u201d according to a statement Wednesday from the University of British Columbia (UBC), which conducted the study.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cUnder a microscope, researchers observed the animal wrapping the appendages around its legs and using attached comb-like spines to clean itself,\u201d the statement said.\n <\/p>\n

\n In contrast to Callipallene pilosuspedes, the newly discovered Tanystylum kiixin species\u2019 \u201cegg-carrying limbs are much smaller and less dexterous, leaving the animal unable to groom itself effectively,\u201d UBC said.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n The \u201ckiixin\u201d in its name, pronounced \u201cKee-hin,\u201d is derived from the sound of the waves crashing at the base of the site of an ancient indigenous village where the species was found, according to the study.\n <\/p>\n

\n This spider sports an hourglass-shaped abdomen, black eyes and knob-like claws.\n <\/p>\n

\n A parasite itself, the spider was \u201cfrequently\u201d found to be \u201ccovered with tiny parasites of its own,\u201d UBC added.\n <\/p>\n

\"Tanystylum<\/p>\n

\n Overall, scientists have identified almost 1,400 species of sea spider, which originated around 500 million years ago, according to the study.\n <\/p>\n

\n The marine arthropods can crawl on ocean floors or stroll on animals or plants, and some can even tread water<\/a>. Their size can range from less than a centimeter (under 0.4 inches), to 70 centimeters (28 inches), UBC said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The animals are not actually spiders but are related to spiders, as well as scorpions and horseshoe crabs, according to UBC. They have four trunk segments and four pairs of long legs, although they can have as many as 12 legs. Shallow-water species also often have four eyes.\n <\/p>\n

\n Their mouths are usually larger than their bodies \u2014 and they use them to suck juices from soft-bodied invertebrates. Their digestive and reproductive systems branch to their legs, and males carry their eggs on a distinct pair of legs until they hatch.\n <\/p>\n

\n The researchers of this study decided to describe shallow water sea spiders in the Salish Sea because only 17 species had been reliably documented there, despite the sea having rich marine biodiversity, according to the study.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI was interested in how sea spiders are impacted by climate change and human disturbance, because marine invertebrates in the Salish Sea are particularly at-risk, and I couldn\u2019t find anything,\u201d lead study author and biologist Cormac Toler-Scott, who conducted the research as part of his master\u2019s in zoology at UBC, said in the statement. \u201cThat\u2019s largely because people don\u2019t know much about what species exist here and what their lifestyle is.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n With the sea\u2019s shoreline now \u201cdensely populated and rapidly developing,\u201d the researchers noted that documenting the biodiversity in its waters is \u201can important step in identifying where conservation efforts will have the greatest impact\u201d in addressing threats to the sea from human activity.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-612632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}