New Sea Spider Phylogenetics Paper

It was a wilder ride than anticipated, but I'm happy to share that our paper on the phylogenetic relationships of Pycnogonids (Sea Spiders) was accepted today in Polar Biology. The analyses for this paper began during downtime on the ship to Antarctica in 2020, and amazing first author Jessica Zehnfennig got mitochondrial genomes from some very tiny sea spider specimens that I pulled from Antarctic mud! We spent a lot of time squinting at mitochondrial gene orders, but the result was surprising. We found a very different topology from some previous studies, specifically changing places of Nymphonidae (smaller, cute spiders) and Colossendeidae (the gigantic but also cute spiders). Working with Jess to build robust phylogenies was a joy, and I am excited to see what the rest of her PhD work brings!

Check out our paper HERE!