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March 22, 2024

Sea spider of the genus Colossendeis from Antarctica

Sea spiders of the genus Colossendeis that live in Antarctica experience polar gigantism and are even larger than sea spiders found in more temperate waters. This specimen was collected during the 2019 PolarTREC (Polar Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating) expedition to study the thermal sensitivity of embryos and larvae of Antarctic marine ectotherms.

[Researcher supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant OPP 1918637.]

Read more about the 2019 PolarTREC expedition. (Date of image: 2019; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: March 22, 2024)

Credit: Amy Osborne (PolarTREC 2019); courtesy of ARCUS (available under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International)

Special Restrictions: This photo is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.


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