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Marine Biologists Discover 31 Potential New Species in Just 2 Weeks at Sea

The ocean is deep, mysterious, and still harbors many undiscovered things. But scientists recently found several few new marine species. Thirty-one, to be exact!

A team of marine scientists on the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel (R/V) Falkor (too) has discovered a potential record of 31 new species in just two weeks via a new suite of microscopes, deep-sea imagers, and onboard genetic sequencing. According to the institute, the expedition’s researchers managed the first-ever 3D imaging of the internal cellular structures of an organism at sea: documenting how a protist’s microbial architecture leverages its glass skeleton. Among the new species, the team has brought to light a new type of amphipod cousin to crabs and lobsters, an unusually fast-swimming gossamer worm, nine new species of jellyfish, and two gigantic single-celled organisms called rhizarians that can be seen with the naked eye.

“The ocean never let up with surprises in every pocket of water that we explored,” as one of the Falkor (too) crew’s lead scientists, molecular biologist John Burns of the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine, said in a statement. 

An advanced research vessel off the coast of Brazil has ID’ed a new cousin to crabs and lobsters, nine new jellyfish, and two gigantic single-celled organisms visible to the naked eye.

Tags

ocean, marine, sea, organism, discovery, science, wildlife

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