Giant sea spider sighted near Antarctica

Scientists recently filmed a giant, dinner-plate-sized sea spider crawling on the seafloor near the South Sandwich Islands, a chain of volcanic islands near Antarctica, shedding light on the diversity of underwater arachnids and the phenomenon of polar gigantism.

The sea spider was described as being the size of a dinner plate, with Schmidt Ocean Institute representatives noting that sea spiders are both "abundant" and "abundantly large" in polar regions.

Sea spiders, also known as pycnogonids, are marine invertebrates that bear a resemblance to the spiders found on land but are not related to true spiders.