PHOTOS: New Deep-Sea Species Revealed by Marine Census

PHOTOS: New Deep-Sea Species Revealed by Marine Census
PHOTOS: New Deep-Sea Species Revealed by Marine Census
PHOTOS: New Deep-Sea Species Revealed by Marine Census
PHOTOS: New Deep-Sea Species Revealed by Marine Census
PHOTOS: New Deep-Sea Species Revealed by Marine Census
PHOTOS: New Deep-Sea Species Revealed by Marine Census
PHOTOS: New Deep-Sea Species Revealed by Marine Census
PHOTOS: New Deep-Sea Species Revealed by Marine Census
PHOTOS: New Deep-Sea Species Revealed by Marine Census
PHOTOS: New Deep-Sea Species Revealed by Marine Census
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PHOTOS: New Deep-Sea Species Revealed by Marine Census
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November 10, 2008--This blind lobster represents just one of the 5,300 likely new marine species identified over the last eight years by the Census of Marine Life.

The Census is a ten-year effort among marine biologists around the world to catalog and understand ocean life. Scientists from more than 80 countries have two more years to examine and document the 95 percent of Earth's oceans that remain relatively unexplored. Their comprehensive report is due in 2010.

The new lobster belongs to a rare genus--Thaumastochelopsis--of which there were previously only four known specimens of two Australian species. The exaggerated claw, or cheliped, is likely used to defend itself in skirmishes with other crustaceans.
—Photograph by Tin-Yam Chan/National Taiwan Ocean University/Keelung/courtesy COML
 

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