Scientists have found more than 30 potentially new species living on the sea floor.
Researchers from the UK Natural History Museum used a remotely operated vehicle to collect specimens from the Clarion-Clipperton Abyssal Plains in the central Pacific. Previously, the creatures of this area had been studied only from photographs.
The study, published in the journal Zookeys, found that there is a great diversity of species of larger organisms in the abyss. Of the 55 specimens recovered, 48 were of different species.
Psychropotes verrucicaudatus, recently discovered using robotic technology. Photo: Courtesy of the DeepCCZ Expedition/Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation and NOAA
Animals found include segmented worms, invertebrates from the same family as centipedes, marine animals from the same family as jellyfish, and different types of coral.
Thirty-six specimens were found at depths greater than 4,800 meters, two were collected on a seamount slope at 4,125 meters, and 17 were found between 3,095 and 3,562 meters deep.
The findings have potentially important implications for deep-sea mining as humans become more interested in mining minerals from the seabed, because the activity appears to have the potential to disturb many creatures.
Peniagone vitrea in situ. Photo: Courtesy of the DeepCCZ Expedition/Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation and NOAA
The study’s lead author, Dr. Guadalupe Bribiesca-Contreras, of the Natural History Museum, said: “This research is important not only because of the number of potentially new species discovered, but because these megafauna specimens previously only they had been studied from images of the seabed. Without the specimens and the DNA data they contain, we cannot properly identify the animals and understand how many different species there are.”
Dr Adrian Glover, who leads the Natural History Museum’s deep-sea research group, said: “We know that millimetre-sized animals called macrofauna are extremely biodiverse in the abyss. However, “We’ve never had much information about the largest animals we call megafauna because so few samples have been collected. This study is the first to suggest that diversity can also be very high in these groups.”