New Species Photos: Vader-like Jelly, Whale Eater, More

A Flowering of New Species

Photograph courtesy James Reimer, University of the Ryukyus

Looking like a cluster of cartoon flowers, this potentially new, unnamed zoanthid—a relative of corals and jellyfish—was found and photographed during a November 2009 Census of Marine Life expedition to a coral reef off Australia's Heron Island (map). (See more zoanthids.)

Despite being among the most studied of marine habitat types, tropical coral reefs still hold a multitude of undiscovered species, said marine biologist Nancy Knowlton, of the National Museum of Natural History and the Census of Coral Reefs field project of the Census of Marine Life.

The ten-year census, she said, has shown that coral reefs are "even more diverse than we expected."

Published October 4, 2010

New Whale-Eating Worm

Photograph courtesy Yoshihiro Fujiwara/JAMSTEC

This likely new species of bristling, segmented worm was feasting on a dead whale more than 3,000 feet (925 meters) beneath a Japanese bay when it was found by a Census of Marine Life expedition. (See "New Worms Eat (and Eat and Eat) Only on Dead Whales.")

When many whales die and sink to the ocean floor, they inject a temporary but important flow of nutrients into the deep sea, scientists say.

This attracts a unique gathering of scavenging animals, including many that remain unknown to science.

Published October 4, 2010

New Kangaroo-like Shrimp

Photograph courtesy Magda Blazewicz-Paszkowycz, University of Lodz

Found on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, a tiny shrimplike creature called a tanaid is one of many new reef-dwelling species discovered by the Census of Marine Life—and one of the few announced Monday, the final day of the ten-year survey.

Growing to less than half an inch (1.3 centimeters) long and reared kangaroo-style in a  pouch, tanaids are among the many groups of "obscure little things" on reefs that—compared with the relatively well-known fish and corals—remain virtually unstudied, according to marine biologist Nancy Knowlton.

"Finding new species is not a surprise," Knowlton added—it's thought that "90 percent of species on coral reefs don't actually have names."

Published October 4, 2010

See-through Species

Photograph courtesy Magda Blazewicz-Paszkowycz, University of Lodz

Found living in swarms among coral rubble off Australia, this translucent, leggy tanaid—a type of minute crustacean—is yet another potentially new species discovered during the Census of Marine Life and announced Monday. (See more pictures of translucent creatures.)

In addition to uncovering new species, the census provides a baseline for studying future ocean changes, including climate change, acidification, and overfishing.

It also developed a cutting-edge tool kit for further ocean studies, including DNA bar-coding to identify species too small to see with the naked eye.

(Related pictures: "Hard-to-See Sea Creatures Revealed.")

Published October 4, 2010

Jellyfish From the Dark Side

Photograph courtesy Kevin Raskoff, Monterey Peninsula College

Doing a credible impression of Darth Vader's helmet, an acorn-size new species of hydromedusa jellyfish, called Bathykorus bouilloni, pulses through deep chilly Arctic waters in an undated Census of Marine Life picture.

A remotely operated vehicle spotted hundreds of these hydromedusae a mile (1.6 kilometers) down—proving that even swarm-living species have escaped scientific detection until recently.

(See pictures of giant jellyfish off Japan.)

Published October 4, 2010

New Branch for Nature's Family Tree

Photograph courtesy Carlos Moura, CENSAM/Universidade de Aveiro

Members of this new species related to coral, Tubiclaviodes striatum, were first found to be common in Spain's Gulf of Cádiz (map). Further Census of Marine Life expeditions revealed the species to inhabit deep reaches across the northeastern Atlantic.

Often seen clinging to deep-sea carbonate chimneys and among coral debris, these hydroids grow collectively in delicate, branching colonies, as pictured.

Published October 4, 2010

Under the Radar

Photograph courtesy Jan Michels

Though first announced Monday, this feathery-looking new copepod species was first found in 2006 more than three miles (five kilometers) beneath the Atlantic Ocean off western Africa.

When Ceratonotus steiningeri was also found in the southeastern Atlantic and the central Pacific, Census of Marine Life scientists were astonished that such a widespread species had gone unnoticed for so long—though its size, one hundredth of an inch (half a millimeter) long, may have had something to do with it.

(Read about copepods found in New York City drinking water.)

Published October 4, 2010