Scientists identified 57 new marine species and five new genera, or groups of closely related species, from Argentina’s Mar del Plata Canyon. The work took two weeks. Most samples came from a 2025 expedition that used a remotely controlled underwater vehicle to explore the canyon. More than four million people watched its dives live online.
Many viewers were interested in an orange sea star that resembled Patrick Star from SpongeBob SquarePants. However, that animal was not a new species, and scientists left it in the sea. The discoveries included a sea cucumber nicknamed Loki because it had two horn-like parts. Researchers also identified 20 new species of copepods, tiny sea animals. They examined only 10% of the copepod samples, leaving 90% still to study.
Experts consider the species newly discovered, but formal scientific descriptions still require published research and museum specimens. Researchers also recorded plastic and fishing litter in the canyon. These findings show that human activity reaches even this remote deep-sea environment.
