Scientists identify 57 new species in an Argentine deep-sea canyon made famous by a livestream
The finds include a horned sea cucumber nicknamed Loki, while a separate study recorded plastic and fishing gear on the canyon floor.
Taxonomists have identified 57 species new to science, along with five new genera, in Argentina's Mar del Plata Canyon, according to the Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census.
Most of the specimens were collected during a 2025 expedition by the research vessel Falkor (too), whose livestreamed dives drew more than 4 million viewers, many of them drawn by an orange sea star that resembled the cartoon character Patrick Star. That sea star turned out not to be a new species.
In July, 20 taxonomists from Latin America and Europe met in Buenos Aires to sort the samples. They found 22 new echinoderms, 20 copepods, 14 corals and sea pens, and a mollusk that lives in a tusk-shaped shell. One is a sea cucumber with two horn-like appendages, nicknamed Loki, living 2,577 meters (8,455 feet) below the surface. The team examined only 10% of the copepod samples, and every specimen was new.
"The deep sea holds some of the least understood ecosystems on Earth," Michelle Taylor, head of science at Ocean Census, said in a press release.
The species are considered discovered but not yet formally described, a process that requires peer-reviewed papers and can take years. Researchers attribute the canyon's diversity to the meeting of the warm Brazil Current and the cold, nutrient-rich Malvinas Current. A separate study in PLOS One recorded 29 pieces of litter, much of it fishing gear, during 10 dives on the same expedition.
This brief is based on reporting by Liz Kimbrough, published Oct. 13, 2026, in Mongabay. Read the original: https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/patrick-sea-star-went-viral-but-argentine-deep-sea-canyon-held-57-new-species/
This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by an editor before publication.
