Dodecolopoda
Sign in to saveDodecolopoda is a monotypic genus of sea spider (class Pycnogonida) in the family Colossendeidae. The only species in this genus is Dodecolopoda mawsoni. This species is notable as one of only two species of sea spider with six pairs of legs in adults (instead of the usual four leg pairs) and the first such species to be discovered.
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Encyclopedic overview
6 sectionsContents
- Discovery
- Phylogeny
- Description
- Locomotion
- Distribution
- References
Dodecolopoda is a monotypic genus of sea spider (class Pycnogonida) in the family Colossendeidae. The only species in this genus is Dodecolopoda mawsoni. This species is notable as one of only two species of sea spider with six pairs of legs in adults (instead of the usual four leg pairs) and the first such species to be discovered.
== Discovery == This species was first described by the Scottish zoologists William Thomas Calman and Isabella Gordon of the British Museum (Natural History) in 1933. The original description is based on a male holotype found at a depth of 219 meters below the surface off the coast of MacRobertson Land. Calman and Gordon named this species for Sir Douglas Mawson, who obtained this specimen on his voyage to the Antarctic region in 1931.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Dodecolopoda” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.