Arthropods - Crustaceans & Sea-spiders
What’s here?
This section provides images and background on the major groups of arthropods (joint-legged animals) that call the seafloor their home. It is intended to be primarily visual, and provide brief detail, natural history, and known distribution of species.
The vast majority of marine arthropods are within a group called the crustaceans for which ~1600 bottom-dwelling species are recognized in the Arctic. Thus, about 25% of all arctic benthic species are crustaceans. The second group - the pycnognids or sea-spiders - are actually more closely related to the spiders and scorpians we find on land than the crustaceans, and are represented by only 35 species in the Arctic.
Page Author: Russ Hopcroft
Created: July 27, 2010
