‘Patrick’ sea star went viral, but Argentine deep-sea canyon held 57 new species.
Taxonomists working with the Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census identified 57 species and five genera new to science from Argentina's Mar del Plata Canyon samples, most gathered during a 2025 livestreamed expedition.
Scientists identified 57 species new to science and five new genera from samples collected in Argentina's Mar del Plata Canyon, according to the Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census. The work took two weeks. In July 2026, 20 taxonomists from Latin America and Europe met in Buenos Aires to sort the specimens.
Most of the samples came from a 2025 expedition on the research vessel Falkor (too). In July and August, a remotely operated vehicle named SuBastian explored the canyon and livestreamed its dives. Ocean Census said more than 4 million people watched live, many of them drawn by an orange sea star that resembled the cartoon character Patrick Star. That sea star is not a new species, and the scientists left it where it was.
The new finds include 22 echinoderms (sea cucumbers and feather stars), 20 copepods, 14 corals and sea pens, and one scaphopod, a mollusk with a tusk-shaped shell. One sea cucumber, nicknamed Loki for its two horn-like appendages, lives 2,577 meters (8,455 feet) down. The corals and sea pens include two potential new genera and a potential new family that still needs genetic analysis. Taxonomists examined only 10% of the copepod samples, and every specimen they checked was new, so 90% remain unexamined.
The species are "discovered" but not yet "described." Ocean Census counts a species as discovered once experts judge it new and log it in an open-access database called Ocean Census NOVA. Formal description requires a peer-reviewed paper and a reference specimen in a museum, which can take years. "International cooperation in taxonomy is critical, especially in groups with few active specialists," said Daniel Lauretta, the CONICET scientist who led the 2025 expedition.
The canyon sits where the warm Brazil current meets the cold, nutrient-rich Malvinas current, and it drops more than 3,500 meters (11,500 feet). It also shows human impact. A study in PLOS One reported 29 pieces of litter during 10 dives, mostly plastic, including a piece of plastic tissue-paper packaging at 3,814 meters. Because the canyon lies about 250 kilometers (155 miles) offshore and much of the debris was fishing gear, the researchers suspect most of it came from activity at sea. Animals had already colonized some of it.
The specimens will stay in Argentina, in national collections including the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales in Buenos Aires. Lauretta's team plans to return with Schmidt Ocean Institute in February and March 2027 to survey a different canyon.
Note: The headline says the canyon "held" 57 new species. The page says these are "discovered," meaning experts judged them new and logged them in a database, but they are not yet formally described in peer-reviewed papers.
At a Glance
- Taxonomists identified 57 new species and five new genera from Mar del Plata Canyon samples in two weeks.
- The 2025 Falkor (too) livestream drew more than 4 million viewers, according to Ocean Census.
- Only 10% of copepod samples were examined, yielding 20 new species and one new genus.
- Researchers recorded 29 pieces of litter during 10 dives, mostly plastic, according to a PLOS One study.
- A return expedition to a different Argentine canyon is planned for February and March 2027.
Sources
This brief was written by Brightside Report from the reporting linked above. Spot an error? Request a correction.