{"id":437931,"date":"2026-05-21T06:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T06:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/437931\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T06:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T06:36:19","slug":"from-ghost-sharks-to-death-ball-sponges-scientists-find-more-than-1100-wild-and-unusual-ocean-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/437931\/","title":{"rendered":"From \u2018ghost sharks\u2019 to \u2018death ball\u2019 sponges: Scientists find more than 1,100 wild and unusual ocean species"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/p>\n

Scientists say they have discovered more than 1,100 previously unknown species in the world’s oceans over the past year.
\n Among them are a worm living in a glass sponge, a “ghost shark” and a carnivorous “death ball” sponge.
\n The findings underscore how much we still don’t know about marine life and the urgent need to document and protect species before they disappear due to threats including human activities and climate change.<\/p>\n

\n AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.<\/p>\n

\n Deep in the ocean<\/a> is a worm that makes its home inside a \u201cglass castle,\u201d a mysterious \u201cghost shark\u201d and a carnivorous \u201cdeath ball\u201d sponge.\n <\/p>\n

\n These are just three of the 1,121 \u201cpreviously unknown\u201d species discovered in the world\u2019s oceans over the last year, announced Tuesday by the Ocean Census, a global effort to map marine life involving more than 1,000 researchers across 85 countries.\n <\/p>\n

\n It marks a 54% increase in annual identifications, according to the three-year-old organization, led by Japan\u2019s Nippon Foundation and Nekton, a UK ocean exploration institute.\n <\/p>\n

\n The ocean is one of the planet\u2019s least known ecosystems, especially the deep sea. Once it was assumed little life could thrive in its extreme environments, but over recent years, scientists have discovered ecosystems brimming<\/a> with unusual \u2013 and sometimes utterly bizarre \u2013 species.\n <\/p>\n

\n Underwater life faces immense challenges from climate change, as oceans warm, and from human activities, including pollution from industry and agriculture. The quest to mine the ocean for its minerals, which appears to be moving further toward reality<\/a>, presents another huge risk.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWith many species at risk of disappearing before they are even documented, we are in a race against time to understand and protect ocean life,\u201d said Michelle Taylor, head of science at Ocean Census.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n Scientists with the Ocean Census made 13 expeditions to some of the world\u2019s least explored oceans over the last year.\n <\/p>\n

\n Off the coast of Japan, at around 2,600 feet beneath the ocean\u2019s surface, they discovered a new species of bristle polychaete worm living within a glass sponge, which has a translucent, mesh-like skeleton \u2013 known as a glass castle \u2013 made of silica, the main component of glass.\n <\/p>\n

\n The sponge and the worm have a symbiotic relationship<\/a>, meaning they benefit from each other. The worm is protected by making its home in the glass castle, a stable structure that\u2019s rich in nutrients, and in return, the worm removes potentially damaging debris from the sponge\u2019s surface.\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n In Australia, scientists found a species of \u201cghost shark\u201d chimaera at depths of around 2,700 feet. These fish are distant relations of sharks and rays, diverging from these species nearly 400 million years ago.\n <\/p>\n

\n In Timor-Leste, scientists found a species of ribbon worm an inch long and with stripes of bright orange, a symbol of its potent chemical defenses. The toxins that ribbon worms produce have been investigated as potential treatments for Alzheimer\u2019s and schizophrenia.\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n In the North Trench of the South Sandwich Islands, a collection of uninhabited islands in the south Atlantic Ocean, scientists found a carnivorous \u201cdeath ball\u201d sponge at depths of nearly 12,000 feet.\n <\/p>\n

\n This species is covered in microscopic velcro-like hooks which ensnare crustaceans floating by on ocean currents. The sponge then envelops and ingests them.\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n Whether all the species are completely new to science may take time to unravel. Typically, it takes an average of 13.5 years between discovery of a species and its formal description in scientific literature, Ocean Census said in a press release.\n <\/p>\n

\n To speed this up, Ocean Census is recognizing \u201cdiscovered\u201d as a scientific status that can be immediately recorded in its marine species database. As soon as an expert validates a discovery, they can log it into an open-access platform, said an Ocean Census spokesperson, explaining, \u201cthis makes the species immediately visible to the scientific community and policymakers.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Tammy Horton, a research scientist at the UK\u2019s National Oceanography Centre, said sometimes a species believed to be new to science turns out not to be after a detailed examination. \u201cI do not think that is a very common occurrence though,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The formal description process is important. It \u201ccarries out the actual work to confirm novelty and provides the \u2018passport\u2019 for that new species \u2013 its official record,\u201d she told CNN. \u201cWithout this the formally recognized name the species effectively does not exist for science, and therefore also for policy \u2013 unnamed species cannot be protected.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe important thing is that scientists are continuing every year to make numerous interesting discoveries of species new to science throughout the global ocean at all depths,\u201d she added.\n <\/p>\n

\n Ocean Census wants the discoveries to catalyze action to protect marine life \u2013 which has enormous ecological, scientific and economic value \u2013 and is calling for more investment into efforts to uncover new species.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe spend billions searching for life on Mars or going to the dark side of the moon,\u201d said Oliver Steeds, director of Ocean Census. \u201cDiscovering the majority of life on our own planet \u2013 in our own ocean \u2013 costs a fraction of that. The question is not whether we can afford to do this. It is whether we can afford not to.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary Scientists say they have discovered more than 1,100 previously unknown species in the world’s oceans over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-437931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}