Ocean census reveals amazing new species
Updated on 23 November 2009
Sea Angels, jewel squid and helmet jellies are among 17,000 new species found during 210 expeditions of the deep ocean for the International Census of Marine Life.
Beyond the reach of sunlight in the depths of the ocean thousands of new exotic creatures have been seen for the first time, using deep sea cameras.
The decade-long exploration by 300 of the world's top ocean scientists has revealed that life can survive in the planet's strangest and harshest habitat.
Dr Alan Hughes of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton talked to Krishnan Guru-Murthy on Channel 4 News at Noon.
He said: "The species have been found using a wide variety of techniques, all sorts of trawls and cameras. This is basically an accumulation of a hundred years of research which has been synthesised by the census."
"Sea cucumbers are the most abundant large animals in the deep sea. This is a species that has never been seen before. It is unusual because it tends to swim around and just touches down now and again to eat some sediment.
"This is the first time that the feeding of this species has actually been filmed."
"The Dumbo is actually from the southern Atlantic. It was found literally only a few weeks ago so we don't actually know very much about this at all. We don't even have a proper formal scientific name for it yet."
"The Golden Treasure is a tiny little crustacean. In the deep sea there are millions of species to be found, like the insects in the tropical rain forest. We don't know what role they play ecologically yet, although we think they play a very important role in carbon cycling in general."
Another discovery, named the Sea Angel (pictured), is a type of small swimming slug which has developed wing-like flaps.
