Pantopoda
Sea spiders are marine arthropods of the class Pycnogonida, hence they are also called pycnogonids (; named after Pycnogonum, the type genus; with the suffix -id). The class includes the only extant order Pantopoda (lit. 'all feet'), alongside a few fossil species which could trace back to the early or mid-Paleozoic.
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). Most are toward the smaller end of this range in relatively shallow depths; however, they can grow to be quite large in the Antarctic region and in deep waters.
2 branches of this order, most-observed first
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Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Pantopoda in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 245099.