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Pycnogonida (sea spiders) can be found all over the globe, from shallow tropical seas, to freezing oceans, to the deepest parts of the ocean over four miles below the surface. In fact, there are around 1,300 varieties of these creatures. Species found in coastal waters are usually small and have a leg span of about 1 inch (2.5 cm), those living at great depths, up to 24 inches (60 cm). The largest of them all the giant sea spider is found only in the icy water of the Antarctic. Sea spiders walk about on the ocean bottom on their slender legs or crawl among plants and animals; some may tread water.

Sea spiders either walk along the bottom with their stilt-like legs or swim just above it using an umbrella pulsing motion.[6] Sea spiders are mostly carnivorous predators or scavengers that feed on cnidarians, sponges, polychaetes, and bryozoans. Although they can feed by inserting their proboscis into sea anemones, which are much larger, most sea anemones survive this ordeal, making the sea spider a parasite rather than a predator of anemones.

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