A NEW species of marine spider that only emerges at low tide has been named after reggae legend Bob Marley.
The species was only discovered in January 2009 when the sea along the coast of Queensland in Australia receded to such an extent that it exposed a population of water-adapted spiders.
The researchers who would later describe the spiders as a species new to science, were quick to associate their emergence with reggae legend Bob Marley and his song High Tide Or Low Tide.
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They described the new Bob Marley’s intertidal spider in a paper published in the journal Evolutionary System- atics.
The researchers said that unlike the spiders which people are familiar with, the intertidal species, listed under the scientific name of Desis bobmarleyi, are “truly marine”.
Study co-author Doctor Barbara Baehr, of Queensland Museum, said : “To breathe, they build air chambers from silk.”