Where Do Antarctica’s Giant Sea Spiders Come From?

For 140 years, a leggy mystery has eluded scientists working in Antarctica. Here, you’ll find enormous sea spiders that are a great example of something called “polar gigantism”, a phenomenon where animals get supersized in cold environments compared to their warmer relatives. Weird thing is, despite their enormous size, nobody knew where they came from. The mystery of Antarctic sea spider reproduction has now been solved thanks to a team of University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa scientists working at a remote research station. They were able to collect several sea spiders by hand and transported them to observation tanks. Doing so enabled them to see Antarctic sea spider eggs for the first time, and it revealed a curious difference compared to other sea spider species. Read more: https://www.iflscience.com/we-were-so-lucky-to-be-able-to-see-this-140-year-mystery-of-how-the-worlds-largest-sea-spider-makes-babies-solved-82094 Video credit: UH Mānoa