Two weeks on the water. Thirty-one animals no scientist had ever described. A Schmidt Ocean Institute expedition off Brazil's coast came home with one of the richest single-trip hauls of new deep-sea species in recent memory: nine new jellyfish, seven comb jellies, seven siphonophores, four larvaceans, a gossamer worm, an amphipod, and two giant single-celled organisms [1].
The team, led by Smithsonian zoologist Dr. Karen Osborn aboard the research vessel Falkor (too), found them with a remotely operated submersible called SuBastian, working from about 1,150 feet down to more than half a mile below the surface [1]. Many of the finds glow - bioluminescent drifters that have never seen sunlight and, until this month, had never been seen at all [1].
The count is the story: 31 unknown animals, two weeks, one stretch of one country's coast [1]. The deep South Atlantic is one of the least-surveyed places on Earth, and every expedition like this one returns the same verdict - the ocean is still keeping most of its residents a secret, and finding them first is how they get protected [1].
