With four eyes, long legs and claws, a new species of sea spider has been discovered hiding in the frozen depths of Antarctica.
Researchers came across the creature, known as Austropallene halanychi, when they cast a trawl into the Ross Sea, a giant gulf 200 miles from the South Pole, according to a study published in the journal ZooKeys.
In January 2013, scientists aboard the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer pulled up the net and realized the unique specimen — collected nearly 1,900 feet underwater — didn’t match any existing description.
It was much larger than other sea spiders, with legs measuring nearly 1.2 inches, with “four darkly pigmented eyes, a short “swollen” abdomen, and a “wreath” of feathers around its mouth, the study said.
One of its most distinctive features is its arm-like appendages, referred to as cheliphores, which are “powerful” and “quite large.”
Researchers found the creature, known as Austropallene halanychi, in Antarctica. Zehnpfennig and Mahon/ZooKeys The tips of his nails are blackened. Zehnpfennig and Mahon/ZooKeys
They also have “oval” scales and claws, which have two fingers, one fixed and one movable. The two fingers are close together, so “there is no space between the fingers.” The tips of their nails turned black.
Like other sea spiders, Austropallene halanychi’s vital organs are in their legs. They also use their feet to breathe, study co-author Andrew Mahon told McClatchy News.
Sea spiders mate through pores in their legs, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the specimen had “large ovigers,” the organs of male sea spiders that carry eggs released by the female.
The creature was found in the Ross Sea, a giant gulf 200 miles from the South Pole. Adobe stock
The creatures feed through a long proboscis, and the Austropallene halanychi measures .1 inch, similar to a straw.
The newly discovered specimen was named after Kenneth M. Halanych, a “prolific marine invertebrate scientist.” His LinkedIn profile shows that Halanych is the executive director of the Marine Science Center at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
