100 new marine species, including mystery creature discovered in New Zealand
According to marine biologist Alex Rogers, the number is likely to increase as they "work through more and more of the samples.”
Marine researchers have found 100 new marine species in the uncharted waters of Bounty Trough off the coast of South Island of New Zealand recently. According to a report in The New York Times, a team consisting of 21 researchers carried out the expedition. The discoveries of the team included dozens of molluscs, three fish, a shrimp and a cephalopod.
According to marine biologist Alex Rogers, the number will likely grow as they "work through more and more of the samples.” “I expect that number to increase as we work through more and more of the samples,” The New York Times quoted Dr Rogers as saying. “I think that number is going to be in the hundreds instead of just 100,” he said.
The discovery also includes a star-shaped animal, about a centimetre long, which has not been identified yet, the report stated.
Talking about the star-shaped organism, Dr Daniel Moore, expedition science manager of Ocean Census, a non-profit organisation said, "It is still a mystery. We can't even describe it to family. We don't know where it is in the tree (of life) as of yet, so that'll be interesting." The researchers believe it may possibly be a coral.
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The team collected 1,800 samples from a depth of about five kilometres. "You've got this big area off the east coast of New Zealand where there's just an absolutely paucity of data points. We don't know anything about it… It was true exploration, very exciting," said Dr Moore.
Along with the Ocean Census, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa were also part of the expedition, the NYT report said.
During the February expedition, researchers initially conducted mapping of the area using an imaging system and video cameras to assess the safety for their equipment and to verify the absence of vulnerable animal communities that could potentially be affected, according to the report. Following this, they utilized the Brenke sled, a sampling device equipped with two nets—one positioned near the seabed and the other approximately a meter above it. Dr. Rogers noted that due to its depth, the Bounty Trough doesn't hold significant interest for fisheries, resulting in limited sampling.
