“They got it!” echoed shouts down the hallways of the Research Vessel Atlantis in Fall 2018. The whole science crew knew what it meant: The elusive polychaete worm, seen numerous times during our deep-sea dives at the Pacific Costa Rica Margin, had finally been captured. Now, it’s been formally described in PLoS One.

The research cruise in question was one of three that surveyed the cold seeps off the coast of the Pacific Costa Rica Margin from 2017-2019. This region is a subduction zone – where one tectonic plate is subducting beneath another. This tectonic activity fuels cold seeps in the area, where chemicals are expelled from the ocean floor that can sustain chemosynthetic life. While seepage had been suspected in this region since 2002, these three cruises represented one of the most intensive sampling efforts in the area to date. One seep site in the region – “Mound 12” – is located about 1,000 m (3,280 ft) below the surface. While we had managed to collect a dizzying array of life here from snails, to tubeworms, to crabs, to mussels, one animal continued to evade our grasp: The Carpet Dragon.

            Okay, it’s not a dragon. It’s also not a flying carpet. But dive videos of individuals seen swimming just above the ocean floor sure looked a lot like both! As scientists aboard the ship didn’t know what it was and were fairly certain the species had never been seen before, the moniker stuck. At about 4-5 inches in length, it could be seen gliding past the cameras with undulating grace, its iridescent parapodia (paddle-like structures used for swimming) dazzling in the sub lights. First observed back in 2009, the Carpet Dragon had eluded capture for nearly a decade. This time, however, the operating team of the deep submergence vehicle (DSV) Alvin, vowed to change that.

            Several dives to Mound 12 yielded sightings, attempts at capture, but still no specimen. The science team was getting nervous. What if we had to finish our expedition with no dragon in tow? Then, on the day before Halloween in 2018, Alvin pilot Bruce Strickrott finally managed to capture a live specimen and bring it to the surface. The science team was buzzing with the news, anxiously awaiting Alvin’s ascent to the surface where we could finally see this specimen up close. We were not disappointed.

The Carpet Dragon, or Pectinereis strickrotti as it’s now officially called, is a polychaete annelid (“Annelida” = Broad animal phylum including all segmented worms; “Polychaete” = Broad class of marine annelids). Specifically, this worm sits within the family Nereididae de Blainville, 1818, which currently includes more than 700 species! While nereidids are found in both shallow and deep water, deep-sea and cave-dwelling nereidids share similar features of “darkness syndrome,” such as having reduced or no eyes and very long appendages. This species, however, is unique among all nereidids in having, among other things, parapodial projections near its head that are modified to function as gills, a hook-shaped acicula (= the strong internal bristle that adds structural support to the parapodia), and a fourth epitokal body region (most only have 3). These unique features not only mean that this is a new species, but also that it belongs in its very own genus, too! Its genus name combines the Latin word for comb (“pectinis”) with the name of the Family (“Nereis”) referencing its unique, comb-like gill structures. Its species name honors Mr. Strickrott, the Alvin pilot that finally captured the beast.

The individuals seen swimming around Mound 12 were found to be male epitokes – Free-swimming, sexually mature forms of polychaetes. Epitokes may form in two ways: (1) An sexually immature polychaete (an “atoke”) stays burrowed in the sand and buds off numerous reproductive epitokes to go and do its sexual bidding (think of it as going on dozens of one-night-stands without ever having to leave your couch), or (2) atokes go through the transformation themselves into a sexually mature epitoke. In both strategies, the epitoke dies once its gametes are released.

            Pectinereis strickrotti is just one example of the myriad of unknown species in the deep ocean, and it is believed that there are numerous undiscovered species of nereidids in the deep ocean just waiting to be described. The energetic hunt for the Carpet Dragon may seem silly, but was ultimately a testament to the enthusiasm, perseverance, and teamwork needed to propel scientific exploration forward. What might scientists find next?

Villalobos-Guerrero, Tulio F., et al. “A remarkable new deep-sea nereidid (Annelida: Nereididae) with gills.” Plos one 19.3 (2024): e0297961

The post The Carpet Dragon Takes Flight first appeared on Deep Sea News.

When whales die and sink to their watery graves, they bring to the seafloor bones rich in those fatty lipids. Thousands of bone-eating females, each just few millimeters high, will infest a whale carcass. So many will accumulate, the whale bones will appear to be covered in a circa 1970’s red shag rug-a rug that eats bones, has harems, and secretes acids, but otherwise a normal shag rug.  Originally, and with good reason, it was thought that Osedax was clearly a whale-fall specialist. The core of whale bones consists of a matrix rich in lipids – up to 60 percent.

But what about something wholly different?  Before the age of large marine mammals, large marine reptiles dominated the oceans. During the Mesozoic Era, rising to dominance in the Triassic and Jurassic periods, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and nothosaurs represented a diverse group of large marine predators terrorizing smaller creatures in the dark depths. The ichthyosaur Shonisaurus may have reached lengths of up to 21 meters in the Late Jurassic and Plesiosaurus may been 12–15 meters in length. The ancient sunken carcasses of these massive marine reptiles may have hosted ancient Osedax. We do know that prehistoric ichthyosaur falls are known to support communities similar to modern whale falls. 

Not to be outdone by other scientists in throwing random things on the seafloor to see what will eat it, in early 2019 I placed not one but three dead alligators on the seafloor in the deep Gulf of Mexico.  Alligators are nice modern analogues of the giant reptiles that once lurked in paleo-oceans and in my current state of Louisiana…well…readily available. And because we could, we place a packet of cow bones down there as well. 53 days later, my team and I visit the alligator carcass to find nothing but bones.  The reddish hue of fuzziness on them indicates Osedax are present.  On May 3, 2019, we overnight some of the collected bones out to California so Greg Rouse can inspect them in his lab and confirm their presence.  We wait patiently for an email from Greg.  On May 23, we get an email from him with the subject “Two new species :-)”. We are elated! Indeed, he finds females with well-developed ovaries and eggs.  Using genetics, he determines that the Osedax on the alligator and cow bones are both new species, previously unknown to science.

Fast forward to today when I get an email with the subject “Your species”. That Osedax from the alligator is named after me.

Osedax craigmcclaini n. sp. is named for Dr. Craig McClain, an esteemed deep-sea biologist and colleague who led the experimental alligator fall project (McClain et al., 2019) and provided the Osedax specimens for this study.

New Species of Osedax (Siboglinidae: Annelida) from New Zealand and the Gulf of Mexico

The post Introducing a New Species: My Namesake, a New Bone-Eating Worm first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Jack and squat is known about free-living flatworms form the deep sea. Their fragile bodies are unlikely to be collected successfully in dredges and trawls. This means that outside of ‘potential platyhelminth’ from a wood fall and deep record of another species little else is known.

A new study adds to our limited knowledge of these beasties. Flatworm egg capsules were retrieved from rocks found approximately 6200 meters deep in a trench in the northwestern Pacific. Despite each capsule being a diminutive 3mm in size, they housed anywhere from 3 to 7 individuals. Through the application of genetic tools, the researchers identified a new species within a group previously only observed in shallow waters.

Kakui, Keiichi, and Aoi Tsuyuki. “Flatworm cocoons in the abyss: same plan under pressure.” Biology Letters 20.1 (2024): 20230506.

The post Flatworm cocoons in the abyss first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Connecting the oceans to land are numerous carbon highways.  These conduits bring food from land to the ocean, supporting an abundance of life.  Our group explores these carbon chains and explores some potential methods of carbon delivery to the deep.  Thus, alligators on the abyss.

At first it may seem fanciful that an alligator carcass might find its way to the deep.  However, dozens of species of alligators and crocodiles are found across the globe, in high numbers, and often in coastal areas.  Through either their normal migrating or foraging activities, or during flooding events, individuals may be found offshore in the ocean.  If one of those individuals meets an unfortunate end, it may fall to the seafloor.

In prehistoric times, the impact to the deep oceans could have been even larger, as large reptiles such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs dominated the sea. Deploying a reptile in the deep sea today may reveal the animals that specialized on the carcasses of long-extinct ancient emperors of the sea.

Earlier this year, our research group placed three alligator carcasses 1.5 miles deep on the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico in the first-ever alligator fall experiment.  Each of the three alligators met a different fate.

The first alligator had been on the bottom of the ocean for less than 24 hours. Despite the tough hide of the alligator, scavengers quickly got through and began to gorge themselves on the flesh of the alligator. Football-sized animals called giant isopods, relatives of rolly pollys or pillbugs, penetrated the hide in this short time-frame.  This demonstrates the speed and precision with which deep-sea scavengers can utilize any carbon source, even food from land and freshwater systems.

A little over 60 miles to the east of the first alligator, the second alligator had been sitting on the seafloor for a little over a month and a half.  All the soft tissue of the alligator had been removed by scavengers.  A small animal called an amphipod was still darting around looking for scraps, but the only thing that remained was a skeleton.  All of the soft tissue had been consumed. The spine curved just as it had been left.  A depression in the sediments indicated where the full body once laid.  The skull was turned over, likely by scavengers while picking at the flesh on the skull.

A fuzzy carpet covering the bones of the second alligator represented a brand-new species, previously unknown to science.  These zombie worms, or Osedax, colonize the bones of many types of vertebrates and consume the lipids within.  This was the first time zombie worms had ever been observed in the Gulf of Mexico or from an alligator fall.  They also demonstrate yet another pathway in which carbon from land makes its way into deep-sea food webs.

Another 60 miles east lay the third alligator.  It had only been eight days since it was laid on the seafloor.  As the camera panned to the marking device, a floating bucket lid attached to a rope like an underwater flag, it became clear that the alligator was missing.  All that remained where it had been dropped was an alligator-shaped depression in the sediments.  Drag marks in the sediment paved a path to what remained of the alligator fall.  An animal dragged this alligator 30 feet and left only the 45-pound weight and rope.  The rope had been bitten completely through. To consume an alligator, and create this disturbance, the animal must have been of great size.  We hypothesize that most likely a large shark, like a Greenland shark or sixgill shark, consumed this alligator whole.

Three alligator falls in the abyss met three very different ends, from being consumed by football-sized cousins of rolly polys, to zombie worms eating their bones, to a large shark dragging it away and consuming it whole.  This research has given us a glimpse into what impact large reptiles had in past oceans, as well as the role they play today.  It is clear that deep-ocean scavengers have no qualms about successfully and quickly consuming food that originated on land or freshwater.

Read more about this research in our group’s recent publication in PLOS One: “Alligators in the abyss: The first experimental reptilian food fall in the deep ocean.”

The post Alligators in the Abyss: Part 2 first appeared on Deep Sea News.

This week the best part of the 90s has returned in full force with the Niantic’s release of Pokémon Go. You guys, this is like that thing when they re-released Oregon Trail for mobile devices…but better.

For those not in the know, Pokémon Go basically blurs the lines between the real world and the virtual world by allowing “Pokétrainers” to catch em’ all as they go through their everyday lives. Quite effectively getting the nerds out into nature to exercise. Sneaky sneaky.

Reports have poured in regarding the rather interesting places people have found themselves looking for wild Pokémon. From strip clubs to delivery rooms, you never know where a Squirtle may be hiding. Perhaps even next to a dead body. 

With that said, I think we can all agree, there are good places to look for Pokémon and very bad, bad places to look for Pokémon. We here at Deep Sea News believe it is our sacred duty to keep the public well informed of all things ocean-faring and would like to point out some of the places that perhaps you shouldn’t go looking for your next Seel or Horsea. You’re welcome.

1. Mariana Trench 

Nearly 7 miles down (36,070 feet), the Mariana Trench clocks in as the deepest point in the world’s oceans. Not only would you not be able to see anything, but the pressures 1,000x that of sea level would crush you and your hopes of catching all the Seadra lurking around in the ocean’s depths. Of course, if you are besties with James Cameron…you might have a chance.

2. Rocky Intertidal Zone

Unlike most of the sea stars on the West Coast of the United States, Starmie’s are immune to Sea Star Wasting Disease so you might actually by lucky enough to find one. However, you must remember that they occupy one of the most extreme ecosystems in the world, the Rocky Intertidal Zone. Thus, in order to be the very best like no one ever was, you must first combat some potentially massive wave action.

3. Hydrothermal Vents

Ironically, there are probably a crap ton of Pokémon at hydrothermal vents and most likely the rarest and most exotic species of all. These vents are teaming with biological diversity uniquely adapted to this most extreme environment comprised of high temperatures and seemingly toxic water. They are adapted…you aren’t.

4. Cook Inlet (Anchorage, Alaska)

Boasting some of the most dramatic tidal exchanges in the United States, this area off the coast of Anchorage, Alaska is no place for Pokétrainers. Krabby and the rest of the water Pokémon won’t get stuck in the quicksand-like glacial silt, but you might. Combine that with a 12.2 m tidal shift and Team Rocket trying to steal your Pokémon will be the least of your worries.   

5. Dead Zone (Gulf of Mexico)

Hypoxic Areas, or Dead Zones, occur when the level of dissolved oxygen in the water column is so low that the area can no longer support aerobic life (note: of which I assume for the sake of this post Pokémon to be). The United States claims domain over one of the second largest hypoxic zones world wide, the Mississippi River mouth in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. This is due, in major part, to large agricultural nutrient run-off. Do not let the photoshopped Squirtle in this picture fool you. There are no Pokémon here. They are all dead.

6. Polar Region

Let’s be real. It’s cold. There is ice everywhere. You don’t have an ice breaker. Though with climate change the way it’s going, catching that Seel might just be a waiting game.  

7. Mediterranean Sea

“The United Nations Environment Programme has estimated that 650,000,000 tons of sewage, 129,000 tons of mineral oil, 60,000 tons of mercury, 3,800 tons of lead and 36,000 tons of phosphates are dumped into the Mediterranean each year.” Probability has it that the Mediterranean Sea is the world’s most polluted ocean, meaning that there are most likely low levels of Pokémon and high levels of “you don’t want to swim there”.

The post The Worst Ocean Environments to “Catch Em’ All” first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Another year of science closes, giving us pause to review those new species of sharks described in the scientific literature, bringing the total number of known shark species to 512. Perhaps it’s a hollow victory to have so many different species known at a time when sharks populations worldwide are either in decline or in a complete population tailspin. But as taxonomists continue to kick ass and give names, our knowledge of shark evolution, biogeography, and ecology continue to get richer. Meet the new sharks of 2015:

Ginglymostoma unami, the Pacific Nurse Shark
This isn’t really the brand-spankin’ new species you might think, but it has been known for well over a century. The Nurse Shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) had a disjunct distribution between the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico and the eastern central Pacific oceans, meaning their range was divided into two separate populations. Like some nooks in the Ozarks, land barriers prevented gene flow, so the populations were both physically and genetically separated by a small spit of land called Central America. This team didn’t use genetic methods to test if the populations were distinct enough to be considered different species, but relied on a meristics, the process of compiling detailed measurements of the shark’s anatomy and comparing these values between the populations.  However, a 2012 paper on populations genetics of G. cirratum showed that the Pacific population was genetically quite unique, and divergent from any of the Atlantic populations. Since these two nurse shark populations had been separated by three million years, a few things can happen, like speciation. Indeed, their analysis showed that these two species are morphologically different enough to warrant giving the Pacific population its own scientific name. This name, G. unami, is an acronym of their alma mater, the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.

Moral-Flores, L.F.D., E. Ramirez-Antonio, A. Angulo, and G. Perez-Ponce de Leon. 2015. Ginglymostoma unami sp. nov. (Chondrichthyes: Orectolobiformes: Ginglymostomatidae): una especie nueva de tiburón gata del Pacífico oriental tropical. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 86 (2015) 48-58.

Scyliorhinus ugoi, Dark Speckled Catshark
Way down among Brazilians sharks once swam there in the millions, but overfishing took surely took a hefty toll, yet there are still new shark species to be found. Case in point: a new catshark that had long been swimming along most of the Brazilian coast but had been confused as other known species. Catsharks are a widespread, diverse, and somewhat confusing group of sharks. Differences in color, morphological changes between juveniles & adults, and sexual differences between males & females create difficulties in sorting out just how many species there are. Here, the authors use detailed meristic analysis to extract out a species that had been there all along, but the morphological features that delineate the species had not yet been defined.

SOARES, K.D.A. & GADIG, O.F.B. & GOMES, U.L. 2015. Scyliorhinus ugoi, a new species of catshark from Brazil (Chondrichthyes: Carcharhiniformes: Scyliorhinidae). Zootaxa, 3937 (2): 347-361.

Atelomycterus erdmanni, Spotted-belly Catshark

This sexy beast is one of the more colorful species of catsharks, and is one of several new species discovered from a larger taxonomic mess called the coral catsharks.  Using meristics, genetics, and biogeographical analyses, it turns out that the “coral catshark” represents several species, with this species as the newest. They don’t live in coral, so much as they crawl on and among coral reefs of Indonesia, using their pectoral and pelvic fins like tiny feet and walking like a more limber and agile salamander. Named after Mark Erdmann, a fish taxonomist who collected most of the known specimens, and was rewarded with this li’l shark bearing his name.

Fahmi & White, W.T.  2015. Atelomycterus erdmanni, a new species of catshark (Scyliorhinidae: Carcharhiniformes) from Indonesia. Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation 14: 14-27.

Bythaelurus tenuicephalus, Narrow-head Catshark
2015 also brought us two more catsharks, from the same genus, and both from the depths of the southwestern Indian Ocean. Hailing from the outer continental shelf of Mozambique and Tanzania comes the Narrow-headed catshark. The vast majority of sharks in recent years have been from the more remote pockets of Earth’s oceans, and in particular, from the deep oceans that have barely been explored. This species of Bythaelurus is a “dwarf”, a species that is sexually mature at a much smaller size than most other species in its genus.  The advantage of dwarfism might allow this species to breed at a younger age, thus increasing their overall lifetime reproductive output. Or it could be that being smaller simply means eating smaller prey that larger species of catsharks might miss. This sort of niche-partitioning may explain why there are so many different species of catsharks. The species name tenuicephalus means “narrow head”, a little less imaginative than some names, but descriptive nonetheless.

KASCHNER, C.J. & WEIGMANN, S. & THIEL, R. 2015. Bythaelurus tenuicephalus n. sp., a new deep-water catshark (Carcharhiniformes, Scyliorhinidae) from the western Indian Ocean. Zootaxa, 4013 (1): 120–138.

Bythaelurus naylori, Dusky Snout Catshark
Another year, another catshark on the list.  This species however, has quite an interesting story behind its capture.  Massive trawlers, towing huge nets and pulling up tons of fish aren’t new, but what is new is the trend for these huge vessels to move from depleted fishing grounds in the shallows, and into the relatively untapped fishery resources of the deep sea. In addition to the targeted commercial species that will earn them great sums of money when they return to port, these nets also catch and kill tons of other non-marketable species.  This is what ecologists call ‘by-catch’, but there is a sunny side to such needless destruction.  Commercial vessels are often the first to explore deep-sea zones, well ahead of research cruises that are difficult to fund and even more impossible to sustain over time. If you can get onto one of these factory trawlers, the bounty of the bycatch is yours, and what a paradise this is to shark researchers. Dave Ebert & Paul Clerkin of the Pacific Shark Research Center at Moss Landing Marine Lab got the invite to board one of these vessels as it sailed south from Mauritius, but with a small catch: they had to stay for the entire three month trawling season. If you haven’t ever had the displeasure of sailing the wild waves and howling winds where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean, then you wouldn’t know that it makes The Deadliest Catch look like a Honolulu harbor cruise. Already hardened by the seas of the Gulf of Alaska, Paul made three of these cruises, collecting more than a dozen new species of skates, rays, sharks, and chimeras that will be published in future years. The species name naylori honors Gavin Naylor of the College of Charleston who, through genetic analysis, is compiling a more complete evolutionary history of extant shark species.

EBERT, D.A. & CLERKIN, P.J. 2015. A new species of deep-sea catshark (Scyliorhinidae: Bythaelurus) from the southwestern Indian Ocean. Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation 15:53-63.

And lastly….
Etmopterus benchleyi, Ninja Lanternshark
If you haven’t already seen this sassy new deepsea shark that went viral late last year, check it out here, and here, and here. That makes six new sharks for 2015, but new species will be discovered and described in 2016, so check back next year.
VÁSQUEZ, V.E. & EBERT, D.A. & LONG, D.J. 2015. Etmopterus benchleyi n. sp., a new lanternshark (Squaliformes: Etmopteridae) from the central eastern Pacific Ocean: Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation; 17: 43-55.

The post Meet the New Sharks of 2015 first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Discoveries in science are not often the result of the stereotypical and unrealistic step-by-step scientific method, but usually occur through other more mundane and unexpected routes.  Think of Flemming’s moldy lunchbox sandwiches as the pathway to developing penicillin, or Newton stone-drunk in an orchard contemplating gravity with a rain of apples falling on his noggin’. When marine biologists discover a new species, especially a new shark species, it isn’t the result of putting on a red-knit cap and a pair of Speedos on your research vessel and loudly declaring that you are going to discover a new shark. Throw the mini-sub overboard, gaze into the darkness through an oval window, and bam – a new species is discovered. Bottles of Clicquot pop back on deck, the scientific community hoists you on their shoulders and applauds your excellence in zoology. Maybe the jackals from Shark Week give you a call to recreate your daring feats for a documentary low on facts and ripe with pseudoscience, likely replacing you with younger C-list actors and warping what actually happened with their own overly-dramatic narrative. With our discovery of the newly-described Ninja Lanernshark, it wasn’t the reward of a planned grand adventure, but was the usual meander of social connections, cooperation among colleagues, the benefits of museum archives, hard work from unpaid graduate students, and plain old good luck.

Several years back, John McCosker of the California Academy of Sciences and Dave Ebert, also a Cal. Academy research associate like myself, and I were studying chimeras, distant deep-sea cousins of sharks. One day I got an email from D. Ross Robertson of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute who in 2010 chartered a Spanish trawler and conducted a number of deep-sea collections off the Pacific coast of Central America, and among the barrels of specimens he collected were a few odd-looking chimeras he wanted us to identify.  Ross had the good sense to photograph many of these specimens while they were still fresh out of the nets, and he forwarded them to us. Along with the photos of these chimeras were hundreds of other photos of deep-sea fishes, including sharks, skates, and bony fishes that were either entirely unknown species, or new locality records for previously-known but poorly documented species.  To a deep-sea ichthyologist, this was the jackpot.  I soon headed to the ichthyology collections at the Smithsonian and spent several days pulling these specimens out of gallon jars of ethanol or dipping my arms nearly shoulder-deep into huge vats of the stuff where the large specimens were preserved. Taking photographs, measurements, and making on-the-spot identifications, I compiled a large number of specimens that the fine folks in the Smithsonian ichthyology department shipped back to the California Academy of Sciences where we could more closely study them.

Once the sharks arrived, Dave and I looked them over and we both thought they were a new species since
they were unlike anything yet known from the eastern central Pacific, but “discovering” a new species isn’t as easy as that.  To describe a new species you need to conclusively show the range of variation in your new species is outside the range of variation in previously-known species. It has to be significantly different than any relative species thus far known. To do this required the painstaking and time consuming process of morphometrics, the detailed series of measurements of the sharks anatomy, and meristics, the count of such things as vertebrae, tooth rows, number of dermal denticles, etc. Fortunately, Dave and I already had a process where we worked with young go-getters, mainly his graduate students at the Pacific Shark Research Center in the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory, to learn the process of describing and publishing new species of sharks, rays, and chimeras. Victoria Vasquez was one of his students already with experience in shark ecology and conservation outreach, so he assigned her to heading the job of the not-so-sexy nitty-gritty of the detailed analysis of the formalin-preserved shark specimens with microscopes, rulers, and dial calipers, and she was a superstar at it.

It soon became clear that these small sharks did indeed represent a new species of lanternshark, a family of deep-sea sharks with this as the first species yet known from the region.  Most deep-sea sharks are dark brown or black to blend in with the darkness of the depths, but some species, like the lanternsharks, have bioluminescent organs that glow a shining pale green. This adaptation may either be to attract mates, maintain group cohesion in a school, lure smaller invertebrates within snapping range of their mouth, or possibly to create a halo-like effect to mediate the downwelling light from above and the tell-tale shadow a predator might see from below, making them effectively invisible. The newly described Ninja Lanernshark seemed to have few of these glow-in-the-dark organs, appearing less like a shark jack-o-lantern and more like a Japanese ninja dressed in black, and using their dark visage to their advantage, so prey may never see it coming. When Victoria consulted her young cousins to help with a common name for this new species, there were many options from the excited shark-loving kids, but Ninja Lanternshark, honed down from Super Ninja Shark, seemed appropriate.

The scientific name was of course in honor of Jaws author Peter Benchley. Several decades earlier I worked with him during a shark conservation program through the Cal Academy, and he admitted – what I had already heard through many other people – that he carried a burden of regret for the violent backlash against sharks unintentionally instigated by his book.  For years afterward, he was not just an advocate for sharks, but a tireless campaigner in promoting ocean conservation. Long after his death, the Benchley Awards fund those who share his dream. Coincidentally, this year was the 40th anniversary of the publication of Jaws, and Victoria already knew Benchely’s widow, who was told about the new shark bearing her husband’s name. After several months of measurements, comparisons with other known species, and countless revisions of the manuscript, it was submitted to the Journal of the Ocean Sciences foundation, one of the rare but essentially important journals that still publishes species descriptions of fishes, and more importantly, one with open access, making this shark species immediately available to the world just this week. The ‘discovery’ of a new species of shark means nothing until a detailed, peer-reviewed study is finally made public.  Fortunately, the bottles of Clicquot can still be popped.

Vasquez, V.E., D.A. Ebert, and D.J. Long.  2015. Etmopterus benchleyi n. sp., a new lanternshark (Squaliformes: Etmopteridae) from the central eastern Pacific Ocean. Journal of the Ocean Sciences Foundation, 17:43-55.

The post Ninja Lanternshark: the New Shark Species You Will Never See Coming first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Recent work by Wagner and Opresko clears up the taxonomy for this coral genus, coming firmly down that these methuselah corals from Hawaii are a completely news species. Despite the misleading statements of some news pieces, the specimens were not recently collected nor recently discovered to be old.   Work back in 2009 by Rourke et al. confirmed these record holding lifespans using radiocarbon dating. The specimens were collected from 1971-2009 and have resided in the collections of scientists and museums. This does not detract from the recently published paper by Wagner and Opresko who clear up confusion because these specimens were previously misidentified or unidentified.

Because of this nobody also realized these corals are cooler than David Caruso.

Like other hexacorals, black corals have proteinaceous skeletons covered in tiny spines, polyps wit size non-retractable and non-branching tentacles, and being exclusively colonial. Another distinctive aspect is hexacorals possess six primary mesenteries, internal body walls that radially divide the polyps into compartments. Think of the dishes in Trivia Pursuit that hold the game wedges or rotelle pasta.Most black corals have six primary mesenteries and either no or four secondary mesenteries. But the species in the black coral family Leiopathidae are biologically blinged out with six primary and six secondary mesenteries. Just ignore the fact that the skeletal spines are poorly developed in the black corals. David Caruso? One mesentery and one spine.

The new species is christened Leiopathes annosa (annosa is Latin for long lived). I would have went with Leiopathes meliorcaruso. The defining characteristic compared to other Leipathes species is that the spines, diminutive though they are, are spherical and multi-lobed (see a in the photo above).  Multi-lobed. Yeahhhhh! The closest species in looks to L. annosa is L. bullosa. The spines are not multi-lobed in L. bullosa. L. annosa also has thicker and longer branches along with more and bigger polyps. Yeahhhhh!

So Leiopathes annosa is older and most definitely more awesome than a lot of other corals. And much better than David Caruso.

The post The Deep-Sea Coral That Is Older and More Awesome Than David Caruso first appeared on Deep Sea News.

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.

Roger Norman Bamber (1949-2015)

I am proud to have been given the task of writing this farewell tribute for my great friend Roger Bamber. I am privileged to have known this unforgettable man and it is now my mission to tell as many people around the world why he was so remarkable.

I can start by telling you that Roger Bamber was a prolific and excellent taxonomist. He is best known for his work on both pycnogonids (sea spiders) and tanaidaceans (which don’t have a common name; an issue we have discussed at great length in the pub). Roger Bamber published a total of 213 scientific papers in his lifetime in addition to many hundreds of reports and non- peer reviewed papers and articles

Roger’s first paper on the Pycnogonida (or Pycnobeasts as he referred to them) was published in 1979 and he followed this first paper with a further 46 papers on them. He established an Order, a Family, a Subfamily, a Genus and 42 new species of pycnogonid. Roger was particularly proud of his 2010 book ‘Sea-spiders (Pycnogonida) of the Northeast Atlantic. Keys and notes to the identification of species’, to which he would point anyone with a query on the group as it was likely covered somewhere within the books 257 pages. A Judith Price, Assistant Collection Manager of Crustacea & Parasites at the Canadian Museum of Nature, noted Roger had a most dismissive attitude to the ecological importance of his beloved pycnobeasts. “If all the pycnogonids on Earth were to vanish tomorrow, I would be one of the five organisms left who gave a damn.”

Judith will be one of the very many who will give a damn that Roger has vanished.

His second love was perhaps the Tanaidacea. Few taxonomists stretch to covering two different groups in this way, yet Roger took this in his stride. He published his first paper on the Tanaidacea in 1986 and his first taxonomic work on them in 1990. His ‘second love’ could be argued to have somewhat overtaken his first, as he went on to describe a total of two families, three subfamilies, 38 genera, one subgenus and an astounding 225 tanaidacean species!

His extraordinary track record for species descriptions does not stop at these favoured taxa as Roger also authored or co-authored seven isopod species, two amphipod species, one leptostracan, six mysids, one Bochusacean, 2 copepod taxa (including a new genus) and 3 polychaete taxa (including a new genus).

Roger appreciated a scientific name with a bit of thought put into it, as he so often put into his species names. This was part of the taxonomic process that he thoroughly enjoyed and which is exemplified by the many unusual names he bestowed upon his new taxa. He was particularly proud of the name

• Tanystylum sinoabductus Bamber, 1992 a species of pycnogonid which came from the South China Sea and was thus a ‘Chinese takeaway’ although the etymology in this case modestly reads: “The name for this species, unique in being the first to be described from Hong Kong, is from the Latin, meaning that which is taken from China.”
• Macrolabrum impedimenta Bamber, 2005 starred in a collection of species in which “The novel nomenclature derives from the names of characters or places from the ‘Discworld’ series of novels by Terry Pratchett, particularly Pratchett (1999) which refers to the “Last Continent”, a place which “just happens to be a bit … Australian”. All the taxa were from Western Australia and Macrolabrum impedimenta is a tanaid species with characteristic spination on each of the legs that give it the appearance of having lots of smaller legs hence the Etymology reads “from the Latin impedimenta – luggage, the Luggage being a notable and fearsome entity from the Counterweight Continent, Discworld, with a lot of small legs”.
• Keska sei Błażewicz-Paszkowycz, Bamber & Jóźwiak, 2012, is one of my favourites for which the Etymology reads: “Phonetically from the name apparently given to this species by a French colleague on first seeing the drawings (in combination with the specific epithet)”. Enough said.

In total Roger Bamber established 338 taxa—an absolutely amazing track record.

Currently there are seven species named in his honour, including genera of Pycnogonida and Tanaidacea. Bamberus jinigudirus Stepieri, Blazewicz-Paszkowycz, 2013; Austrodecus bamberi Wang, Huang, Lin & Zheng, 2013; Kalliapseudes bamberi Drumm & Heard, 2011; Leptognathia bamberi Larsen & Shimomura, 2007; Makassaritanais bamberi Gutu, 2012; Bamberene Staples, 2014; Chauliopleona bamberi Bird, 2015. A special, forthcoming issue of the journal Zootaxa that will name many more after this prolific man.

Roger’s reach extended far beyond taxa and publications. Throughout his working life Roger developed and maintained an interest in numerous diverse fields, including of course deep-sea biology, and he will be remembered by many for his attendance at international meetings. He was an integral member of the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) community was responsible for the Pycnogonida and Tanaidacea. He also provided valuable input to the World Register of Deep-Sea Species (WoRDSS). Roger was a well-known member of a number of editorial boards (Zootaxa Editor, for Pycnogonida, Tanaidacea, Cumacea; Editor of Zookeys, Pycnogonida; Editorial Advisory Board for Polish Polar Research; Guest Editor for Journal of Natural History) and his input to these was invaluable.

One of the many tasks of a modern taxonomist is to provide guidance and advice to fledgling taxonomists as they prepare their first papers and learn the ‘tools of the trade’ and this is something Roger was particularly adept at. He would gladly accept manuscripts to edit and comment on, and had the required patience and ability conduct this task with ease.   He was a celebrated pedant, always ready to correct a grammatical injustice and known to carry a red pen in his top pocket for such occasions as might arise. His talents as an eloquent writer of prose must not be overlooked.

Roger was always great company, interesting, engaging, controversial, but always good fun. He certainly stood out from the crowd with his unmistakable and timeless unique style! He was unusual, amongst academics, in successfully carrying off a mixture of a great intellect and no-nonsense approach to science, with an infectious amiability and ability to enjoy life to the fullest. He was always (and I mean ALWAYS) happy to have a beer with you (and definitely two or three). He smoked more than anyone I have ever known, and he also really appreciated good food. Therefore, it was in the pub, restaurant, or outside smoking that Roger could be relied upon to be found and it was always in these places that the best discussions, friendships and memories were made.

I thought long and hard about how best to end this farewell but decided that it was probably best done by the man himself, so I invite you to watch a presentation by Roger which was recorded at Joel Hedgepeth’s memorial meeting in 2008.

I hope that by watching this video you will get a flavour of Roger’s character, his wonderful pedantry, his particular sense of humour, and his immense knowledge.

Over to you Rog…

Bamber R.N. , 2005. The Tanaidaceans (Arthropoda: Crustacea: Peracarida: Tanaidacea) of Esperance, Western Australia, Australia. Proceedings of the Twelfth International Marine Biological Workshop: pp. 613-728. In: F.E. Wells, D.I. Walker and G.A. Kendrick (eds). The Marine Flora and Fauna of Esperance, Western Australia. Western Australian Museum, Perth.

Błażewicz-Paszkowycz M., Bamber R.N. & Jóźwiak P. 2012. Tanaidaceans (Crustacea: Peracarida) from the SoJaBio joint expedition in slope and deeper waters of Japan. Deep Sea Research II. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2012.08.006

The post Roger Norman Bamber (1949-2015) first appeared on Deep Sea News.