1,100+ NEW MARINE SPECIES IDENTIFIED IN DEEP-SEA, INCLUDING MYSTERIOUS ‘GHOST SHARK’

Ribbon worm (Drepanophoridae sp.)

Wed 27 May 2026:

Marine scientists have discovered a total of 1,121 new marine species living in the depths of the world’s oceans over the past year. The findings have marked a “significant step” in the research, which required understanding and protecting the oceans, according to the scientists behind The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census, the world’s largest mission to accelerate ocean species discovery.

The discovery of these numbers of species has marked a 54 per cent jump in identifications in a single year, the researchers confirmed. The new species include corals, crabs, shrimps, sea urchins and anemones. In addition, some are found living at depths of over four miles beneath the ocean surface.

‘Ghost Shark’ Chimaera (Chimaera sp.1)

The “Ghost Shark” Chimaera, a distant relative of sharks and rays, was discovered in the Coral Sea Marine Park off the coast of Queensland. Researchers described chimaeras as some of the ocean’s most enigmatic deep-sea creatures, noting that they existed before dinosaurs and branched off from sharks and rays into a separate evolutionary line nearly 400 million years ago.

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Researchers also identified symbiotic bristle worms living inside a “glass castle” on volcanic seamounts in Japan. The so-called castle refers to the complex chambers of a glass sponge, whose skeleton is composed of crystalline silica. Meanwhile, a vividly pigmented predatory ribbon worm was found in shallow waters at depths of just 3 to 16 feet.

Burrowing Sea Anemone (Harenactis sp.)(Image Courtesy of The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census/Agustín Garese)

Another notable discovery was a new shrimp species, the Mediterranean shrimp, located in a sea cave near Marseille. Distinguished by its bright orange bands and elaborate appendages, it was among several species identified during 13 expeditions across some of the world’s most remote and least-explored ocean regions, along with nine discovery workshops.

“This year, Ocean Census has shown what is possible when scientific ambition is matched by global collaboration at scale,” Mitsuyuku Unno, executive director of the Nippon Foundation, said in a statement. “Through expeditions reaching polar depths to tropical seas, and the science to turn samples into discoveries, this team is revealing the extraordinary richness of ocean life,” he added.

Previous research has suggested that up to 90 per cent of ocean species remain undiscovered. The researchers added that documenting the breadth of species living in the oceans is compulsory for policymakers and marine managers to properly protect the ocean. They further noted that the average time between a species’ initial discovery and its formal “description” in scientific literature is historically around 13.5 years, placing species vulnerable to extinction before they are even catalogued.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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