Ambitious effort to document marine life shows 866 new species and still going

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Hundreds of New Marine Species Discovered

On the Day of March 13th 2025 A guitar shaped shark, a fan like coral and a venomous deep sea snail equipped with harpoon like teeth are among 866 previously unknown species discovered as part of an ambitious effort to document marine life that has not been documented by scientists.

Ocean Census Reveals First Major Update

Found by divers, piloted submersibles and remotely operated vehicles during 10 ocean expeditions, the species have all been deemed new to science, according to Ocean Census, a global alliance to protect sea life, which this week released the first major update since its launch in 2023. The 10 year project aims to plug the huge gaps that exist in scientists’ knowledge of the ocean depths.

Expert Highlights Scope of Discovery

Michelle Taylor, a coral expert at the University of Essex and a principal investigator at Ocean Census, said the scope for discovery is immense. “Probably only 10% of marine species have been discovered,” Taylor told CNN from onboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Falkor research vessel while on a 35 day expedition to the South Sandwich Islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean. “And for the species that have been discovered with Ocean Census, it’s across such a wide variety so everything from sharks to pipefish to gastropods are being discovered Scientists found a new species of coral at depths of 3 feet (1 meter) to 3.1 miles (4,990 meters), with analysis conducted by scientists involved in the Ocean Census Science Network, which includes more than 800 scientists from 400 institutions.”

Unique Discoveries: Shark, Coral, and Snail

One coral specialist, Taylor said one of her favorites among the newly revealed discoveries was an elegant octocoral, which has eight tentacles, is found in the Maldives, and is softer and more flexible than other coral species. Ocean Census researchers also located the guitar shark, which belongs to a genus known as Rhinobatos, off the coast of Mozambique and Tanzania. Its shape is distinctive, and the animal displays characteristics of both sharks and rays. “Shark species their numbers are dropping dramatically in every ocean of the world, so to discover a new species is quite special,” If you think this is a sea shell you are wrong this is a venomous sea snail named Turridrupa magnifica. Discovered at 2,770 to 3,575 meters in the Arctic’s Jøtul Vent Field near Greenland, this is only the second species of its genus. These deep sea snails inject toxins into their prey with their unusual teeth. Bioactive compounds in the venom of related species have contributed to medical advancements, including pain treatments.