57 new species in the Mar del Plata Canyon: the sea cucumber "Loki"

This news from the deep sea immediately caught my curiosity. Researchers from the Schmidt Ocean Institute discovered 57 new marine species during an expedition off Argentina. Among them are five new scientific genera, from groups such as corals, sea cucumbers and crustaceans.

The finds come from the Mar del Plata Canyon, an underwater valley off the Argentine coast. The work took place at about 2,500 meters depth, where no sunlight reaches and you can only see anything with robots and cameras.

One find has drawn a lot of attention: the sea cucumber "Loki." The name is of course a little joke, and that is exactly what I like about research. Behind a name like this is years of serious work, but the people in the lab are allowed to smile along the way.

What I find so exciting is that we are not talking about a distant planet, but a place on Earth where a single expedition turns up dozens of previously unknown organisms. It shows me how much we still do not know about our own ocean.

I will keep following the reports on this expedition and will add to this post once more is known about the individual species.

Source: ZDFheute