 sea spiders, also called pantopoda or pycnogonids, are marine arthropods of class pycnogonida. they are cosmopolitan, found especially in the mediterranean and caribbean seas, as well as the arctic and antarctic oceans. there are over 1300 known species, ranging in size from  to over  in some deep water species. most are toward the smaller end of this range in relatively shallow depths, however, they can grow to be quite large in antarctic waters. although "sea spiders" are not true spiders, or even arachnids, their traditional classification as chelicerates would place them closer to true spiders than to other well-known arthropod groups, such as insects or crustaceans. however even this is in dispute, as genetic evidence suggests they may even be an ancient sister group to all other living arthropods. the parsimony analyses in supplementary figure 6 shows the latter.sharma, p.p., kaluziak, s.t., pÃ©rez-porro, a.r., gonzÃ¡lez, v.l., hormiga, g., wheeler, w.c. & giribet, g. (2014) phylogenomic interrogation of arachnida reveals systemic conflicts in phylogenetic signal. molecular biology and evolution 31:2963-2984. ==description== [[file:pycnogonida nymphon s sars.png|left|275px|thumb|anatomy of a pycnogonid: a:&nbsp;head; b:&nbsp;thorax; c:&nbsp;abdomen 1:&nbsp;proboscis; 2:&nbsp;chelifores; 3:&nbsp;palps; 4:&am
Pycnogonids