Biologists identify 57 new species in the Mar del Plata Canyon — ScienceAlert
An international group of biologists has identified 57 species new to science and five new genera of organisms collected during a deep-sea expedition in the Mar del Plata Canyon off the coast of Argentina. The samples were studied by participants in a taxonomic workshop at Maimónides University in Buenos Aires. ScienceAlert reports this.
Canyon research
The Schmidt Ocean Institute expedition took place in August 2025 aboard the research vessel Falkor (too). The remotely operated underwater vehicle SuBastian was used to collect samples. Most organisms were collected in the Mar del Plata Canyon, one of Argentina's largest deep-sea ravines, which reaches more than 3,500 meters below the ocean surface at its deepest point.
In this area, the warm, saline Brazil Current meets the cold, nutrient-rich Malvinas Current. The expedition was part of the Ocean Census initiative, which documents marine life before it may be affected by climate change and deep-sea mining.
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It was during this expedition that a starfish compared to the character Patrick Star from the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants was shown in a live broadcast. At the same time, the main result was the taxonomic study of the collected samples.
New species
The new species include 22 echinoderms, including sea cucumbers and sea lilies; 20 species of copepod crustaceans; and 14 cnidarians, including octocorals, sea pens, and stony corals. Scientists also identified one new mollusk species, a scaphopod mollusk.
Some corals, sea cucumbers, and crustaceans also represented new genera. One of the sea cucumbers of the genus Peniagone was nicknamed “Loki” because of horn-like protrusions resembling the headdress of the Norse god. During the workshop, specialists examined about 10% of the collected copepod samples, all of which belonged to previously undescribed species. This yielded 20 new species and one new genus in this group.
