Sea spiders sound like a reason to stay out of the water. Cormac Toler-Scott, lead author of a study describing two new species, helps you separate their unsettling appearance from what they actually do.
Some polar species can span a couple of feet, but don’t picture those giants when you hear about the new discoveries. How small are these animals, and what are they feeding on? Their lives on the ocean floor might challenge the creature you’ve already imagined.
Even if you’d rather never see one, there’s a reason to care about finding them. How can scientists tell whether an ocean community is changing if they can’t reliably identify its inhabitants? Two small animals open a much bigger question about what we still don’t know.
Topics: sea spiders, species discovery, marine biodiversity, taxonomy, ocean ecosystems
GUEST: Cormac Toler-Scott | https://www3.botany.ubc.ca/bleander/index.html | @cormac_ts
Originally aired on2026-10-27
