Sea spider

Sea spiders
Temporal range:
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Latreille, 1810
Class:
Gerstaecker, 1863
Type genus
Pycnogonum
Brünnich, 1764
Orders and families

See text

Synonyms

Arachnopoda Dana, 1853

Sea spiders are marine arthropods of the class Pycnogonida,[1] hence they are also called pycnogonids (/pɪkˈnɒɡənədz/;[2] named after Pycnogonum, the type genus;[3] with the suffix -id). The class includes the only extant order Pantopoda[4] (lit. ‘all feet’[5]), alongside a few fossil species which could trace back to the early or mid-Paleozoic.[6] They are cosmopolitan, found in oceans around the world. The over 1,300 known species have leg spans ranging from 1 mm (0.04 in) to over 70 cm (2.3 ft).[7] Most are toward the smaller end of this range in relatively shallow depths; however, they can grow to be quite large in Antarctic and deep waters.

Despite their name and slight resemblance, "sea spiders" are not spiders, nor even arachnids. While some literature around the 2000s suggests they may be a sister group to all other living arthropods,[8][9] their traditional classification as a member of chelicerates alongside horseshoe crabs and arachnids has regained wide support in subsequent studies.[6][10][11]

  1. ^ "Pycnogonida". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.: "New Latin, from Pycnogonum [...] + -ida"
  2. ^ "pycnogonid". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.
  3. ^ "pycnogonid". The Free Dictionary. From Neo-Latin Pycnogonida, class name, from Pycnogonum, type genus.
  4. ^ "Pycnogonida". World Register of Marine Species. Taxon details.
  5. ^ "Pantopoda". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.: "taxonomic synonym of Pycnogonida < Neo-Latin, from pant- + -poda"
  6. ^ a b Sabroux, Romain; Garwood, Russell J.; Pisani, Davide; Donoghue, Philip C. J.; Edgecombe, Gregory D. (14 October 2024). "New insights into the Devonian sea spiders of the Hunsrück Slate (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida)". PeerJ. 12 e17766. doi:10.7717/peerj.17766. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 11485130. PMID 39421419.
  7. ^ "Sea spiders provide insights into Antarctic evolution" (Press release). Australian Antarctic Division. Department of the Environment and Energy. 22 July 2010. Archived from the original on 31 July 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2017 – via antarctica.gov.au.
  8. ^ Giribet, Gonzalo; Edgecombe, Gregory D.; Wheeler, Ward C. (2001). "Arthropod phylogeny based on eight molecular loci and morphology". Nature. 413 (6852): 157–161. Bibcode:2001Natur.413..157G. doi:10.1038/35093097. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 11557979.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Maxmen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Giribet, Gonzalo; Edgecombe, Gregory D. (2019). "The phylogeny and evolutionary history of arthropods". Current Biology. 29 (12): R592 – R602. Bibcode:2019CBio...29.R592G. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.057. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 31211983.
  11. ^ Edgecombe, Gregory D. (2 November 2020). "Arthropod origins: Integrating paleontological and molecular evidence". Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 51 (1): 1–25. doi:10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-011720-124437. ISSN 1543-592X.