One of the species has long, curved spines (or ‘hairs’), covering its lower legs, red eyes, a short proboscis, and claws<\/a> to grasp food. It also has a three-lipped mouth covered in sensory tendrils, and nimble ovigers (a\u00a0specialised pair of\u00a0sea spider\u00a0limbs),\u00a0which it uses to groom itself.\u00a0Researchers named this new species\u00a0Callipallene pilosuspedes, after the Latin for \u2018hairy feet\u2019.<\/p>\n The second new species \u2013\u00a0Tanystylum kiixin, named after the ancient Indigenous village site near where specimens were collected \u2013 has smaller limbs than\u00a0C. pilosuspedes.\u00a0Toler-Scott says these sea spider specimens\u00a0were often found covered with tiny parasites<\/a>, creating what he describes as “an ecosystem within an ecosystem within an ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n Sea spiders<\/a>, which are related to scorpions, spiders<\/a> and horseshoe crabs<\/a>, evolved around 500 million years ago. Unlike terrestrial spiders, these ocean dwellers can have up to 12 legs and possess a sucking proboscis.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve retained some weird traits,\u201d says Toler-Scott. \u201cA lot of the shallow water species are quite small, and so they’ll live as parasites on larger organisms, and they use this weird apparatus called a proboscis to suck the juices out of their host.\u201d And if that wasn’t strange enough, they also breathe through their skin.<\/p>\n Some species are tiny, measuring less than 1cm in length, while others, such as a deep-sea species found in Antarctica, can grow to more than 70cm.<\/p>\n Toler-Scott\u00a0explains why the new discoveries are important: \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’t find anything. That’s largely because people don’t know much about what species exist here and what their lifestyle is.<\/p>\n \u201cIn order to understand how marine invertebrates are being impacted by things like climate change and how we can better protect these key elements of the ecosystem, we have to be able to identify them,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n The two new species, which were identified using both detailed imaging and DNA analysis, have been registered in a global database. But Toler-Scott believes there are more sea spiders to be found. \u201cI only had one field season but there’s definitely more diversity out there that we haven’t documented.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Callipallene](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Callipallene-pilosuspedes.jpeg\")
An image of the new sea spider species, Callipallene pilosuspedes. Credit: Cormac Toler-Scott<\/p>\n![\"Sea](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Sea-spider-Tanystylum-kiixin.jpeg\")
A photo of a new species of sea spider, Tanystylum kiixin. Credit: Cormac Toler-Scott<\/p>\n![\"mouth](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Mouth-of-Callipallene-pilosuspede-scaled.jpeg\")
The three-lipped, tendril-filled mouth of Callipallene pilosuspede. Credit: Cormac Toler-Scott<\/p>\n
![\"Salish](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Salish-Sea-map.jpeg\")
Map showing the location of the Salish Sea \u2013 a\u00a0marginal sea that wraps around the Canadian province of British Columbia and the US state of Washington \u2013 where the new sea spider species were found. Credit: PeterHermesFurian\/Getty Images<\/p>\n