Photos: Dragonfish, Fireworm, More Found by Sea Surveys

Spider Conch

Photograph courtesy Shaoqing Wang

Found in China, the spider conch (pictured) is a mollusk, one of the most common groups of species in the new Census of Marine Life inventory.

Mollusks such as squid,octopus, snails, and slugs make up 17 percent of the named species found. Only crustaceans, such as crabs and lobsters, were more plentiful, at 19 percent, the report says. (See pictures of colorful ocean creatures.)

Well-known marine vertebrates such as whales and sea lions make up less than 2 percent of the survey, scientists noted.

(Related video: "Sea Discoveries Spawn Music Video.")

August 2, 2010

Corpse Nursery

Photograph courtesy H. Bahena, Felder, D. L. and Camp, D. K. (eds.) 2009. Gulf of Mexico­Origins, Waters, and Biota. Vol. 1. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas.

Phronima sedentaria sets up house by attacking and then hollowing out a transparent jellyfish-like animal called a salpa (as pictured).

The tiny crustacean then lays its eggs inside the "barrel," according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. When the babies hatch inside, the female, now outside the barrel, "watches over" her babies by pulling the makeshift nursery around via hooked claws.

(See pictures of unusual sea creatures.)

Phronima's native Gulf of Mexico (see map) is among the five most diverse areas surveyed in the new inventory, along with China, the Mediterranean Sea, Australia, and Japan, according to the new Census of Marine Life report.

For instance, Australia and Japan are each home to about 33,000 species. By contrast less diverse regions such as the Baltic or the northeastern U.S. each have about 4,000 known species.

August 2, 2010

Venus Flytrap of the Sea

Photograph by I. MacDonald, Felder, D. L. and Camp, D. K. (eds.) 2009. Gulf of Mexico­Origins, Waters, and Biota. Vol. 1. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas.

"Stunningly beautiful but deadly," the Gulf of Mexico's Venus flytrap anemone (pictured) acts much like its terrestrial namesake, stinging its prey with an array of tentacles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

(See pictures of more stinging and toxic sea creatures.)

The species' native Gulf—along with the Mediterranean, China, the Baltic, and the Caribbean—are most under threat from human activities, the Census of Marine Life report noted.

For instance, nutrients in sewage and fertilizer washed from the land are degrading these marine habitats by creating oxygen-free "dead zones," the report says. What's more, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill may worsen these dead zones, as well as wield untold damage to the animals at the bottom of the food chain.

August 2, 2010

Bearded Fireworm

Photo courtesy Eduardo Klein

The bearded fireworm's rows of white bristles (pictured) are filled with venom that easily penetrates flesh and creates an "intense burning irritation"—hence the species' name—according to the Census of Marine Life report.

The worm lives in the Caribbean Sea, one of the ocean regions with the fewest native species, according to the new report. Native species make up about half of New Zealand and Antarctica's marine species and a quarter of those in Australia and South Africa.

August 2, 2010

Flashing Jellyfish

Photo courtesy JAMSTEC

Japan's deep-dwelling jellyfish Atolla wyvillei (pictured) has developed a clever "burglar alarm": When attacked by a predator, the creature lights up in hopes of attracting a bigger predator that will eat the jellyfish's attacker, according to the Census of Marine Life report and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Eighty percent of all creatures known to produce light-emitting chemicals live in the oceans. The phenomenon of bioluminescence is still poorly understood.

(See pictures: "Glowing Sea Beasts: Photos Shed Light on Bioluminescence.")

August 2, 2010

Unknown Octopus

Photograph by I. MacDonald. Felder, D. L. and Camp, D. K. (eds.) 2009. Gulf of Mexico­Origins, Waters, and Biota. Vol. 1. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas.

An as yet unnamed deepwater octopus species (pictured) of the Benthoctopus genus moves across an 8,600-foot-deep (2,700-meter-deep) Gulf of Mexico seafloor in an undated picture. (See pictures of a purple octopus and other deep-sea creatures found recently off Canada.)

In addition to the 25 ocean areas surveyed by Census of Marine Life scientists, major species inventories continue in highly diverse areas such as Indonesia, Madagascar, and the Arabian Sea, according to the new report.

August 2, 2010

Red-Lined Paper Bubble

Photograph courtesy Yoshihiro FUJIWARA/JAMSTEC

A relative of the snail, the red-lined paper bubble (pictured) was found feeding on a sperm whale carcass off Japan's Kyushu Islands (see map).

(Related: "New Worms Eat (and Eat and Eat) Only on Dead Whales.")

The deep seas, the tropics, and the Southern Hemisphere hold the most undiscovered species, according to census scientists.

"At the end of the Census of Marine Life, most ocean organisms still remain nameless and their numbers unknown," marine biologist Nancy Knowlton, leader of the the census's coral reef project, said in a statement.

"This is not an admission of failure," added Knowlton, also of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.

"The ocean is simply so vast that, after ten years of hard work, we still have only snapshots, though sometimes detailed, of what the sea contains. But it is an important and impressive start."

August 2, 2010