These are the 100 new species of marine animals discovered by scientists

The Earth has a surface made up of two-thirds of water. This aqueous mass is the habitat of a total of 250,000 discovered species, since it is likely that there are more marine animals for which there is still no scientific evidence. According to National Geographic, 95% of the ocean world is still undiscovered, indicating that the underwater bottom remains an unknown on the planet.

As the years go by, there are more and more explorations that try to understand the life that is found thousands of meters below large bodies of water. One of these investigations, carried out by an international team of scientists led by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, collected data on a total of 100 marine species never before observed and that could be classified as new.

Study at 4,500 meters depth

The exploration, led by Dr. Javier Sellanes of the Universidad Católica del Norte, studied the Salas y Gómez mountain range, which extends over 2,900 kilometers and is home to 200 seamounts from the coast of Chile to Easter Island. On the other hand, the bottoms of the Juan Fernández and Nazca-Desventuradas marine parks were also tracked. The study of these areas was carried out in order to collect sufficient data to support the creation of an international marine protected area.

To track the oceanic mountains, a marine robot (ROV SuBastian) was used, capable of descending to a depth of 4,500 meters, which made it possible to obtain data from ten mountains belonging to the Nazca and Salas y Gómez ridges. Thanks to this, scientists discovered that each underwater mountain had its own fauna and that these species were in a vulnerable situation.

Experts aboard the ship Falkor mapped a total of 52,777 square kilometers in which 100 new species never before observed were discovered. Among them are: sponges, sea urchins, corals and amphipods (small crustaceans). However, these animals are still being analyzed, since “complete identification of the species can take many years,” they say from the Schmidt National Institute.

In addition, scientists from the ocean institute embarked on a second exploration on February 24, which will focus on studying the seabed of the waters off the coasts of Peru and Chile throughout 2024, and which will be broadcast live through their YouTube channel.