Head to head
Remipede vs Sea Spider
Remipede
VS Sea Spider
Both animals have strange, primitive-looking body plans, but they occupy completely different habitats and survive in very different ways.
| Remipede | Sea Spider | |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific name | Remipedia | Pycnogonida |
| Habitat | Flooded coastal caves | Every ocean at every depth |
| Vision | Completely blind | Not specifically blind |
| Notable adaptation | Produces venom via specialised fangs | No gills; organs extend into the legs |
| Body plan | Considered primitive among crustaceans | An ancient lineage dating back 500 million years |
| Size | Not documented as unusually large | Antarctic species reach 25–50 cm (polar gigantism) |
| Conservation status | Not Evaluated | Not Evaluated |
| Habitat | Ocean | Ocean, coastal |
Remipede vs Sea Spider: common questions
Which one is venomous?
The remipede is the venomous one, using specialised fangs to inject paralysing venom into prey, a trait not documented in the sea spider, which instead pierces soft prey with a tubular proboscis.
Which one is completely blind?
The remipede is completely blind, an adaptation to its lifetime spent in the total darkness of flooded coastal caves, unlike the sea spider, which is not specifically documented as blind.
Which one can grow to dinner-plate size in Antarctic waters?
The sea spider is the one capable of this, with Antarctic and deep-sea species reaching leg spans of 25 to 50 centimetres through a phenomenon called polar gigantism, a size not documented in the remipede.