Sea+Spiders+-+Extreme+Conditions

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I belive that though sea spiders are weak and slow as shown in 16, sea spiders are quite the amazing , adaptive for many situations, predator. As also shown in 16 they are superbly camoflaged, often being mistaken for seaweed by predators , and are only preyed upon by chance and not by purpose. They are also, as shown in 16, able to withstand virtually any water tempature and are thought to be perhaps, even older than the dinosaurs , which clearly illustrates them as an sucesful and adaptive species. Also as shown in 13, the bigger ones in the cold water have lower metabolic rates than the small warmer water types ones have, and since polar water has more dissolved oxengen per square feet than warmer water , the bigger sea spiders were therorized to perform worse in lower oxengen. But out of twelve species of various sizes and climates, the bigger kind from colder climates performed no worse on average than the smaller ones from a warmer climate when researchers flipped each of them over on their backs for an hour each.

Sea spiders eat hydras, microbodes, tiny polyps from coral or sponges , hydroids , bryozans , polychaetes , and sea anemones as shown in 16 and 14 , not to mention 15. Things like pom pom anemones can and are fed off of multible times as they are renewable resourses as shown in 15. 16 shows that though sea spiders feed on the prey, the prey usually survives the feeding which is good as in extreme cold there are bigger and longer living animals , though they are less densely distributed throughout the sea floor.

This information just shows that though sea spiders have had to adapt to some extreme conditions, are a sucessful and adaptive species. How else could they survive in any water tempature, grow to have a leg span of half of a meter, or have such brilliant camoflauge?

Visuals = Vent sea spider = ||||~  ||
 * [[image:http://www.mbari.org/news/homepage/2010/seaspider-pom1-350.jpg width="286" height="286" caption="1 sea spider and pompom anemone courtesy of MBARI 2009"]][[image:tmsmawakasci6/hhhaspx.aspx width="404" height="276" caption="2 tellus.sec.wisc.edu"]]
 * **taxon:**Pycnogonida, Ammotheidae || **species:**//Ammothea verenae// ||
 * **axial status** common || **author:** //Child, 1987// ||
 * This species is common along the Ridge but confined to vents. Sea spiders usually eat hydroids but, as there are none at vents, it appears to scavenge or eat microbes. ||

= = Make sure to include the location of your images; add a caption with this information

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"Milky Way." //Kids InfoBits Presents: Astronomy//. Gale, 2008. Reproduced in Kids InfoBits. Detroit: Gale, 2012. "The Milky Way." //WMAP's Universe//. NASA, 28 June 2010. Web. 06 Mar. 2012. . Vergano, Dan. "Galaxy Bracketed by Big Bubbles." //USA Today// 10 Nov. 2010: 05A. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.


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Source Citation:
13 "Breathing deep." //Nature// 457.7226 (2009): 133. //Gale Science In Context//. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.

Source Citation:
14 George, Alison. "Gelid realm." //New Scientist// 184.2468 (2004): 49. //Gale Science In Context//. Web. 6 Mar. 2012 by [|Jonte Rhodes]
 * 15 Journal article: ** C. E Braby, V. B. Pearse, B. A Bain, R. C. Vrijenhoek (2009).Pycnogonid-cnidarian trophic interactions in the deep Monterey Submarine Canyon, //Invertebrate Biology//, 128 (4), 359-363.
 * 16 What are sea spiders?**

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Breathing deep
Nature, January 8, 2009

[|listen -]

Breathing deep Antarctic seaspiders (pictured above), some up to 90 centimetres long, are giants compared with their 1-10-millimetre-long tropical cousins. Researchers have had a simple hypothesis for this 'polar gigantism', but results from a research team co-led by Arthur Woods of the University of Montana, Missoula, have complicated the picture. Polar water has a higher level of dissolved oxygen, and cold-water arthropods have lower metabolic rates than their warm-water counterparts. The big spiders were thus expected to perform worse in low-oxygen environments. Woods's team repeatedly flipped over spiders from 12 species that encompassed the small, medium and large varieties for an hour each, to see how long they took to right themselves. Overall, the giants were no more sluggish than the tiny ones. This result suggests that scientists must search for other possible evolutionary or ecological mechanisms for polar gigantism. Proc. R. Soc. B doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.1489 (2008)


 * Full Text: ** COPYRIGHT 2009 Nature Publishing Group. http://www.nature.com

Source Citation:
"Breathing deep." //Nature// 457.7226 (2009): 133. //Gale Science In Context//. Web. 6 Mar. 2012. Seaspiders (phylum Arthropoda, class Pycnogonida) are a group of arthropods that take their common name from their superficial resemblance to the true spiders. Although rarely seen, these are widespread animals occurring in every ocean, with a preference for cooler waters. Seaspiders occupy a wide range of habitats: some species have been recorded from a depth of 19,685 ft (6,000 m), but the majority live in shallow coastal waters. Some 1,000 species have been identified. Most seaspiders are small animals, measuring from 0.04-0.4 in (1-10 mm) in length, but some deep sea species may reach a length of almost 2.4 in (6 cm). The body itself is usually quite small, the main mass of the spider being accounted for by its extremely long legs. The legs are attached to the anterior portion of the body (the prosoma) and are usually eight in number, although some species may have 10 or even 12 pairs. The body is segmented with the head bearing a proboscis for feeding, a pair of pincher like claws known as chelicera, and a pair of segmented palps that are sensory and probably assist with detecting prey. Most seaspiders are either a white color or the color of their background; there is no evidence that they can change their body coloration to match different backgrounds. Many deep sea species are a reddish-orange color. The majority of seaspiders crawl along the substrate in search of food and mates. They are often found attached to sea anemones, bryozoans, or hydra, on which they feed. They are all carnivorous species and feed by either grasping small prey with the chelicera, tearing off tiny polyps from corals or sponges, or by directly sucking up body fluids through the mouth, which is positioned at the extreme tip of the proboscis. The temperature hovers around -2[degrees]C, boosting the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water and allowing creatures to grow to huge proportions under the ice. Sponges can grow as large as bears and seaspiders have leg spans of half a metre. The photos alone earn this book a place on your coffee table, and each is accompanied by a short paragraph telling the story behind it. George, Alison


 * Full Text: ** COPYRIGHT 2004 Reed Business Information Ltd. For more science news and comments see http://www.newscientist.com.. http://www.reedbusiness.co.uk/

Source Citation:
George, Alison. "Gelid realm." //New Scientist// 184.2468 (2004): 49. //Gale Science In Context//. Web. 6 Mar. 2012. || Creeping slowly across the deep seafloor on long, spindly legs, giant sea spiders are found in many deep-sea areas. But, as with many deep-sea animals, we know very little about how sea spiders live. A recent paper by MBARI-affiliated researchers shows that sea spiders suck the juices out of deep-sea anemones. The researchers also discovered several locations where both anemones and sea spiders congregate in the dark depths of Monterey Canyon. Although they look somewhat like land spiders, sea spiders are an entirely separate class of animals, known as pycnogonids (pronounced "pick-no-gone-ids"). Pycnogonids are "suctorial" predators—most species feed by sucking the bodily fluids from other marine animals. Pycnogonids are fairly common in tide pools, but these intertidal species are typically small and hard to see. In contrast, deep-sea pycnogonids can [|grow to over 50 cm] (20 inches) across, and spend much of their time on the open seafloor. The authors of the recent article did not originally set out to learn about sea spiders. The lead author, former MBARI postdoctoral fellow Caren Braby, worked with MBARI senior scientist [|Robert Vrijenhoek] and a team of researchers who were studying the [|weird worms] and other animals that grow on dead whales whose carcasses sink to the seafloor. One of these "whale falls" is located 3,000 meters below the surface in the outer reaches of Monterey Canyon. The researchers visited [|this whale fall] numerous times using MBARI's remotely operated vehicle //Tiburon//, to study how how the community of animals at the whale fall changed over time. The researchers soon noticed that every time they visited this site, they saw pycnogonids. Even more interesting, most of the pycnogonids were near pom-pom anemones—large, round anemones that roll around the seafloor like tumbleweeds. In fact, the researchers also noted that groups of pom-pom anemones and debris frequently accumulated near this particular dead whale just as tumbleweeds and trash pile up against a barbed wire fence. During several ROV dives, the researchers came upon pycnogonids that were crouched directly over pom-pom anemones. Zooming in one of these encounters with the ROV's video camera, the researchers could see that the pycnogonid had inserted its proboscis into one of the anemone's tentacles. Apparently the pycnogonids were not devouring entire anemones, but were simply sucking the juices from the anemones' tentacles, one at a time. In one case, the researchers even videotaped a pycnogonid removing a couple of tentacles from a pom-pom anemone and walking away, holding them in its mouthparts like a take-out dinner. Overall, the pom-pom anemones seemed to survive periodic pycnogonid attacks without too much difficulty, although the researchers did note that the affected pom-pom anemones "had a wilted appearance compared with their neighbors." Thus, the pom-pom anemones may serve as a "renewable resource" for the pycnogonids. Other species of anemones were not so lucky. The pycnogonids also fed on smaller anemones that attached themselves directly to the whale bones. In such cases, the pycnogonids typically plucked entire anemones from their perches and then walked away to devour the animals at their leisure. In addition to congregating around the whale carcass, pycnogonids and sea spiders also frequented a piece of driftwood and a large field of deep-sea clams nearby. Like the whale carcass, such debris and clam beds serve as food-rich oases in the flat, muddy expanse of the deep seafloor. They also stick up above the surrounding sediment, creating eddies in ocean-bottom currents. Such eddies allow debris and pom-pom anemones to accumulate. The researchers speculate that pycnogonids may seek out such areas to take advantage of the relatively abundant (and immobile) food supply. The recent paper provides yet another example of how "chance" observations can lead to new discoveries in the poorly understood environment of the deep sea. In addition to providing one more piece in the jigsaw puzzle of a deep-sea food web, this discovery helps marine biologists understand how deep-sea animals can survive on sources of food that are both ephemeral and widely dispersed.

** Journal article: ** C. E Braby, V. B. Pearse, B. A Bain, R. C. Vrijenhoek (2009).Pycnogonid-cnidarian trophic interactions in the deep Monterey Submarine Canyon, //Invertebrate Biology//, 128 (4), 359-363. For more information on this article, please contact Kim Fulton-Bennett: (831) 775-1835, kfb@mbari.org

> ===by [|Jonte Rhodes]=== > **Created on**: January 09, 2009 > Most people tend to think that sea spiders are merely some kind of spiders that live in the sea, however this isn't the case at all. In actual fact sea spiders are completely unrelated to land spiders, and are only called spiders at all because of their superficial resemblances. > The class name for sea spiders is Pycnogonida, and there are eighty-six separate genera within this. Unlike land spiders, sea spiders are not arachnids, and in fact belong to the family of arthropods which includes insects and crustaceans as well as arachnids.
 * ==What are sea spiders?==

There are currently over 1300 known species of sea spider, which range in size from under one millimeter, to nearly 1 meter long in some species. Although most have four pairs of legs, similar to land spiders, there are also some species with five and six pairs. Compared to land spiders, they also tend to have small, slender bodies and much longer legs, which enables them to move around easier in the water. > Sea spiders generally spend their time traveling slowly along the ocean floor, usually looking for food. Although they are rarely seen in the wild by most people, sea spiders can in fact be found in nearly every sea in the world. Also most species can be found in fairly shallow water, although the larger species tend to live deep in the Antarctic. > The fact that sea spiders can be found in virtually any water temperature means that they are clearly a very successful species. Also despite the lack of any fossil record, they are thought to be an extremely old species, perhaps being older then the dinosaurs. The lack of any fossil record is largely due to the fact that they have soft bodies, and also tend to be eaten on the seldom occasions that they die naturally. > Sea spiders are thought to have few natural predators, largely because they are often superbly camouflaged against their potential predators. Also the way that they move means that they are often mistaken for seaweed. They are sometimes eaten, although due to their size and lack of much of a body, they are usually only prayed upon opportunistically. > Despite the fact that sea spiders are slow moving and incapable of being noticeable aggressive, they are in fact nearly all predatory. They have a mouth part called a proboscis, which is like a sharp straw, which they stab into prey in order to drink the nutrients within. However, despite this sounding violent, their prey is primarily stationary species such as anemones, polychaetes and sponges. > Furthermore, usually the sea spider's prey species survive being fed on, which means that while feeding, they don't deplete the numbers of any other species. This is particularly useful in Antarctica, where the numbers of marine species are much less dense than in warmer waters. It is also thought that this is the reason that species tend to get a lot bigger, and live a lot longer in the extreme cold, so that they have enough time in their lifetime to find a mate in the vast empty space that is the ocean floor. > Although sea spiders may appear to be quite large and intimidating when into he water, they are in fact harmless to humans. Even the largest species are extremely slow moving, and lack the strength required to lift their limbs when removed from the water. Even if encountered while diving, sea spiders would be unable to pierce human skin, much less a diving suit, and are in no way aggressive or reactive, even if handled. >