Sea spider in jar

Small in the basement, giant in the deep ocean

Who doesn't know the pill bug? Wherever it is sufficiently moist, you can find these small crustaceans with their split, scale-like armour, in which they can curl up into a ball in case of danger. Barely a centimetre long, we usually only pay limited attention to these terrestrial member of the isopod family.

More in demand, however, are their isopod relatives from the deep sea. They can reach an amazing length of more than 30 centimetres and over one kilogramme in weight. So, it is understandable that the German Maritime Museum would like to show these "giants" of the deep sea to their audience. Until 2009 this was done by using sporadic works on loan from other scientific institutions, but now the museum owns a specimen itself.

At a size of 25 centimetres, it is one of the largest specimens in German collections. It is the gift of Simon Weigmann, who at that time was a biology student at the University of Hamburg. After a visit to the OZEANEUM, he understood the hardships of his colleagues at Stralsund and gave them the specimen, which he brought from a research project in the Philippines. It was caught by local fishermen at a depth of 350 to 400 metres.

There are also representatives of the isopod family in the Baltic Sea. With its 9 cm, the Baltic Giant Isopod is not quite as large. Giant Isopods are scavengers, living on mud or sandy soils.