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The world's oceans may be vast and deep, but a decade-long count of marine animals finds sea life so interconnected that it seems to shrink the watery world. An international effort to create a Census of Marine Life was completed today with maps and three books, increasing the number of counted and validated species to 201,206. A decade ago the question of how many species are out there couldn't be answered. It also could have led to a lot of arguments among scientists. Some species were counted several or even dozens of times, said Jesse Ausubel of the Alfred Sloan Foundation, the co-founder of the effort that involved 2,700 scientists. The £411 million project got money and help from more than 600 groups, including various governments, private foundations, corporations, non-profits, universities, and even five high schools
A Fathead (Psychrolutes microporos) trawled during the NORFANZ expeditions at a depth between 1,013m and 1,340m, on the Norfolk Ridge, north-west of New Zealand, June 2003
But what scientists learned was more than a number or a count. It was a sense of how closely life connects from one place to another and one species to another, Ausubel said. Take the bizarre and minuscule shrimp-like creature called Ceratonotus steiningeri. It has several spikes and claws and looks intimidating - if it weren't a mere two-hundredths of an inch long. Five years ago this critter had never been seen before. No one knew of its existence. Then, off the Atlantic coast of Africa as part of the census, it was found at a depth of more than three miles (five kilometres) below the surface. It was one of 800 species found in that research trip, said discoverer Pedro Martinez Arbizu, a department head at the German Centre for Marine Biodiversity Research. He was astonished to find that the tiny creature also was within the catalogue he'd made earlier 8,000 miles away in the central Pacific. There was that critter again. Same shrimpy creature, different ocean. "We were really very, very surprised about that," Arbizu said in an interview. "We think this species has a very broad distribution area"
The census found another more basic connection in the genetic blueprint of life. Just as chimps and humans share more than 95 percent of their DNA, the species of the oceans have most of their DNA in common, too. Among fish in general, the snippets of genetic code that scientists have analyzed suggest only about a 2 to 15 percent difference, said Dirk Steinke, lead scientist for marine barcoding at the University of Guelph in Canada. "Although these are really old species of fish, there's not much that separates them," Steinke said
South of Easter Island, Census vent explorers discovered a crab so unusual it warranted a whole new family designation, Kiwidae. Beyond adding a new family to the wealth of known biodiversity, its discovery added a new genus, Kiwa, named for the mythological Polynesian goddess of shellfish. Its furry or hairy appearance justified its species name, hirsuta
This blind lobster with bizarre chelipeds belongs to the very rare genus Thaumastochelopsis, previously known only from four specimens of two species in Australia. The specimen collected during AURORA 2007 from about 300m is a new species
A new species of hydromedusae, Bathykorus bouilloni, common below 1,000 metres. Hundreds of Bathykorus bouilloni were observed by a remotely operated vehicle in the Arctic, showing that a new species can be common in a habitat.
Multilayered structure of the shell of Crysomallon squamiferum, a recently discovered gastropod mollusc from the Kairei Indian hydrothermal vent field. It is unlike any other known natural or synthetic engineered armour
Male of the new species Leptocheliidae sensu lato, collected at Lizard Island (Great Barrier Reef) in 2008
Vigtorniella sp. (polychaete worm) found at a whale fall at Sagami Bay, Japan at a depth of 925 metres. Whale fall is the term used for a whale carcass that has fallen to the ocean floor. Whale falls were first observed in the 1980s, with the advent of deep-sea robotic exploration.
"New" Dumbo (Grimpoteuthis sp.), a cirrate or finned octopod, which flaps a pair of large ear-like fins to swim, photographed over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
In October 2007, US and Filipino scientists travelled to the Celebes Sea in Southeast Asia, searching for new species living in its deep water. When they discovered this extraordinary worm - which they named "Squidworm" - they knew they had something completely different. WHOI scientist Larry Madin and National Geographic Society photographer Emory Kristof led the expedition, which was supported by the NOAA Office of Exploration, the National Geographic Society, and the WHOI Ocean Life Institute (OLI).
This pink see-through fantasia, Enypniastes, is a swimming sea cucumber seen about 2,500 metres deep in the Celebes Sea. In 2007 WHOI biologist Larry Madin led a team of scientists and photographers from the US and the Philippines on an expedition to explore biodiversity in the deep Celebes Sea, supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Geographic Society, and the WHOI Ocean Life Institute. The team used scuba diving, nets, cameras, and ROVs to study the deep sea in this area that has been called a "cradle of biodiversity for shallow water marine animals".
This striking creature, a Venus flytrap anemone, Actinoscyphia sp., was photographed in the Gulf of Mexico.
The tube anemone, or tube dwelling anemone, lives in a mucous tube on the muddy bottoms of coastal waters, estuaries, and soft seabeds. These attractive anemones are found in tropical and subtropical waters throughout the world, where they can grow up to 15cm (6 in) across and 30cm (12 in) tall. When the anemone is threatened, the animal retracts into its tube for protection. The beautiful stinging tentacles of the tube anemone vary from a vibrant purple to a creamy brown.
Marrus orthocanna, a physonect siphonophore, photographed during NOAA's Hidden Ocean Expedition. The colonial animal is made up of many repeated units, which include tentacles, and multiple stomachs. Many specimens were observed between 300 and 1,500 metres deep.
Flamingo tongue snail, Cyphoma gibbosum, was photographed near Grand Cayman, British West Indies,
and is listed in the Gulf of Mexico biodiversity inventory.
Antarctic male pycnogonid bearing its eggs, a marine distant relative of spiders, sampled in the Larsen A area, Antarctic Peninsula,
during the Polarstern expedition ANTXXIII-8.
Gary Cranitch's photographs for CReefs were recognized for excellence by the Australian Institute of Professional Photographers. This spectacular jellyfish inhabits the water of the Great Barrier Reef off Lizard Island, Queensland, Australia.
This octopus specimen was collected at Lizard island in an ARMS (Autonomous Reef Monitoring System) at 14.39S, 145.27E at a depth of 10-12m.
A golden lace nudibranch, Halgerda terramtuentiss, was collected in the waters of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
The Arctic copepod, Euaugaptilus hyperboreus, uses the elongated setae on its mouth-parts to ensnare struggling prey.
A Fathead (Psychrolutes microporos) trawled during the NORFANZ expeditions at a depth between 1,013m and 1,340m, on the Norfolk Ridge,
north-west of New Zealand, June 2003.
