31 New Species Discovered in Two Weeks of Deep-Sea Exploration

[highplainsdem]

I first found out about this via a Gizmodo article published today - https://gizmodo.com/marine-biologists-discover-31-potential-new-species-in-just-2-weeks-at-sea-2000778436 - but the Gizmodo piece is based on this article from June 8:

https://www.bigelow.org/news/articles/2026-06-08.html

An international team of midwater experts on board Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor (too), including two researchers from Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, discovered over 30 new marine species on a recent expedition off the coast of Brazil in the tropical South Atlantic Ocean. The scientists used advanced technologies to explore the Ocean’s midwater — the space between the sunlit layer and the seafloor — which is Earth’s largest and least explored habitable ecosystem. It can take scientists decades to identify and describe new species, but the combination of technology and expertise enabled the team to confirm these species as new within a matter of days.

The list consists of an amphipod, a type of crustacean related to crabs and lobsters; a gossamer worm that moves faster than scientists expect based on its body shape; nine jellyfish; seven siphonophores, colonial organisms related to jellyfish and corals; seven comb jellies or ctenophores, famous for the glittering cilia they use to swim; four larvaceans, tadpole-like creatures that live in mucus houses and are more closely related to humans than invertebrates; and two giant rhizarians, single-celled organisms visible to the naked eye.

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The imaging systems included the DeepPIV (particle image velocimetry) and EyeRIS (remote imaging system) instruments, developed by the Bioinspiration Lab at MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute), which were attached to Schmidt Ocean Institute’s remotely operated vehicle SuBastian. DeepPIV and EyeRIS are sophisticated, non-invasive tools for scanning marine animals; they use lasers to scan organisms and create 3D images of them. In addition, the team used a shadowgraph camera, which can image the finer details of animals not visible in the 3D scans, developed by Dhugal Lindsay from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, a co-PI on Burns’ Ocean Shot. The images help scientists describe the shape and internal structures of animals without having to collect them.

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The team used another microscope developed at Stanford University to gain critical new insights into the physiology of midwater animals. The microscope, known as Squid, is an open-source, confocal microscope. Using Squid, the team achieved a first for research at sea and imaged living internal cellular structures in 3D. One of the organisms imaged was a large single-celled microbe called a protist. The microscope enabled the scientists to observe how the protist’s cellular structure interacted with its glass skeleton.

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More at the link.

[Lovie777]

1. Mermaids?.................

There is a ancient theory that mermaids were actual man like and how they chose the sea and mankind chose the land.