Today is a very exciting day. Indeed, today is one of the best days ever! The next step in my evil science plans for total world domination to unlocking science achievement level 10 is now complete. Thanks to Chris Mah (@echinoblog), one of the world’s leading experts on starfish, there is now a species named after me. I may die but my species, Paulasterias mcclaini, will live on forever. BWAHAHAHAHAAHA.

Why would Dr. Mah name the coolest species of starfish ever after me? Well I’ve agreed to not let out details about his secret superhero identity in the arrangement. Kidding. Along with David Clague, I invited Chris to join us an expedition in 2009 to visit the Northeast Pacific of Washington and Oregon aboard the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s Western Flyer.

I don’t jest when I say this coolest species of starfish ever. Others may raise an eyebrow to such a statement but there are many reasons.

1. The species is named after me.

2. The species is named after me.

3. Paulasterias mcclaini along with Paulasterias tyleri are part of a brand new family of starfish, Paulasteriidae, the first new family erected in this group of starfish, Forcipulatacea, since the 1800’s. See the evolutionary tree below.  You can see these two new species are quite unique genetically from others in the group.

4. The other species and family is named after deep-sea biologist Paul Tyler. Paul’s contributions to deep-sea science are wide spread, novel, and significant. Paul, along with John Gage, literally wrote the book on deep-sea biology. I studied and reread the book many times over years. It has served as inspiration to me and countless others. I also have another important connection with Paul. Years ago my first submersible dive was with him in Harbor Branch’s Sealink. Needless to say I’m in fantastic company.

5. Despite echinoderms being a major player in most of the deep sea, no members of been collected as primary members of hydrothermal vent settings. P. mcclaini and P. tyleri are the found either near vents or in proximity.

6. Number 6…well it’s six armed. Five-arm starfish need to learn how to represent.

7. P. mcclaini don’t give a damn. It’s found on rock, mud, pillow lava, vent chimney fragments, and even hydrothermally altered clays interspersed with bacterial mats.

8. P. mcclaini don’t like the heat. It’s not found actually on vents where it’s hot and toxic. This starfish doesn’t need that kind of subprime real estate.

9. Especially on the larger specimens this bad boy starfish has thick, fleshy skin. Indeed, the body is covered by a layer of fleshy, spongy tissue that obscures the plates comprising the body. I realize this sounded cooler before I wrote it down.

10. Better yet, this starfish is armored and ready for battle. Spinelets cover the entire body.

11. Finally, P. mcclaini might be set on total global domination. Chris Mah sates, “A six-rayed pink species with inflated arms has been observed by the Okeanos Explorer on two ROV imaging expeditions, in the North Atlantic (August 2013) and in the Gulf of Mexico (April 2014). This species is possibly identified as Ampheraster alaminos; however, it shows superficially similar body colour and shape to P. mcclaini gen. et sp. nov. “

Mah, C., Linse, K., Copley, J., Marsh, L., Rogers, A., Clague, D. and Foltz, D. (2015), Description of a new family, new genus, and two new species of deep-sea Forcipulatacea (Asteroidea), including the first known sea star from hydrothermal vent habitats. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 174: 93–113. doi: 10.1111/zoj.12229

The post These are a few of my favorite species: Paulasterias mcclaini “McClain’s 6-armed fleshy star” first appeared on Deep Sea News.

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We dove Wednesday on North Cleft (45.030268, -130.182166), a massive ravine over 100 meters deep and a few hundred meters wide formed by the spreading of the Juan de Fuca and Pacific Plates. At 2.5 kilometers depth, we explored three inactive hydrothermal vents, the tallest being 15 meters high, roughly the height of a 4-story building. As active vents these structures provided the raw materials of life to dense communities possessing several phyla, today we only saw hints of the communities that once were. Rusticles, iron stalagtites, hung off the extinct vents lending an eerie atmosphere to the scene. We quantified the communities on a lava flow dated to 1986 and a much older but yet to be dated lava flow. These are the next data points in our analyses of exploring how these communities shift through time.

A major storm in North Pacific drove us south on Wednesday, forcing us to abandon two more dives on the Cleft segment scheduled for Thursday and Friday. Instead we opted for additional dives on the President Jackson Seamount and the Gorda Ridge, which will keep us well out of the storm’s path. With deep-sea exploration you always count on lost days at sea due to equipment or weather. Contingency plans are prepared well in advance, and adjusted on the fly, to maximize our time and science on seafloor.

On Thursday, we conducted the first of two dives on the President Jackson Seamounts. Our first dive (42.819173, -128.16031) began in a caldera floor. By dive’s end, we finished on the caldera wall nearly 300m shallower than we started. Unlike our previous dive sites with jagged landscapes of hardened lava, the caldera floor was smooth with sediment collected over the many 100’s of years since this was geologically active. This is the land of echinoderms. In retrospect not so atypical for the deep sea or our dive sites so far, but I am amazed nonetheless by their tremendous densities. We saw our first barnacles today. Attached to rocks with their goose-like necks, from the distance their numbers suggest meadows of wildflowers. Yellow, white, orange, and pink corals hung on the caldera rim strategically placing their polyps off the bottom into better currents for feeding. We saw a massive 14-armed seastar nearly one meter across perched on volcanic rubble. My first gastropod of the trip was a highlight and, after the many kilometers of seafloor we have traversed, a welcome friend. Well… a welcome friend you remove from their natural habitat, cage, transport through the most extreme conditions, and then place in a jar with alcohol. The other Dr. M. hauled in echinoderms disparate in color, function, and form with many potentially new to science. Today’s dive reminded me both of the wonder of the deep and the creator’s inordinate fondness for invertebrates.

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Monday was consumed with our second dive on the north end of Coaxial (46.5191126, -129.588406) along the Juan de Fuca Ridge.  Two and a half kilometers down we slowly make our way across lava sheet flows. A fine dusting of sediment covering these smooth sheets was wisped away as the ROV passed overhead.  Brittle stars, the “pigeons” of the deep-sea, ranged in size from a penny to a dinner plate covered the landscape.  Intermittently, we observed sea cucumbers camouflaged by covering themselves in broken shell pieces.  In this case, the armor plating is old pteropod shells from long-dead individuals that dwelled in the water column above.  The highlights are lollipop shaped sponges, spheres of spicules on 10 centimeter stalks, affectionately named by us as an “sponge-on-a-stick”. A unknown species of a soft coral also captured our attention.  By the end of the dive we have visited two flows of unknown age and another dated between 1982-1991.

Tuesday we sent the ROV to a caldera on Axial Seamount (45.940745, -129.983788) at 1500m.  This once was an eight by three kilometer underwater molten lake filled by multiple flows.  As these individual flows hit barriers, lava began to pool and rise.  When the flow managed to rupture or overcome a barrier, the pooled lava would subside. This left behind an elevated surface layer, now cooled and hardened, marking the once elevated lava pool.  Over time, this surface layer has fallen and cracked revealing empty voids below it.  In some areas, lava pillars, which are formed by lava rapidly cooled from water venting out, hold up this old surface layer like a ceiling.  Lava bridges, arches, caverns, ceilings, pits, fissures, and voids are the building blocks of this landscape, reminiscent more of fire-bombed cathedrals than the deep-sea floor.  Sea stars were the rulers of this charred, but often spiritual, landscape, overseen by hovering rattails like so many zeppelins.   As we approach, brittle stars moved away from the intense lights utilizing four of their five legs to become temporary quadrupeds.  Others displayed a ratcheting behavior, previously unknown among our group and possible to science.  They turned their central disc first clockwise while coiling their arms and then repeated counterclockwise.  This produced an effect that both propels them forward rapidly, but also produced an erratic trajectory that may throw off a nearby predator or a Volkswagen sized ROV.

The post NE Pacific Expedition Day 6 & 7 first appeared on Deep Sea News.

…from the Echinodermata.  Chris Mah has heard my call and unleashed the World Asteroidea Database.  This will definitely make roll call easier when I assemble the troops to overtake the world.

Chris has done a terrific job and taxonomic databases such as this not only are the future of science but allow the addressing of several questions not allowable before.  Our wish list for the future of WAD includes body size information, biogeographic data, and of course funding for Chris to continue on.

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