Deep in the dark Australian Abyss, what’s visible can be scarier than the unseen. There, giant sea spiders scuttle along like glowing ghosts.
The critters are not true spiders but relatives that split off from a common ancestor on the arthropod family tree some 500 million years ago. Researchers have just described the sea spiders’ glow in the October Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers.
“It’s quite impressive for people scared of spiders,” says Jérôme Mallefet. The marine biologist works for the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.
His team’s photos confirm that these creatures can emit light. Some 76 percent of deep-sea creatures produce a clear glow. Known as bioluminescence, this trait dates back 540 million years.
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