Researchers on a scout ship near Antarctica have identified a sea creature that has taken the international community by surprise.
Last August, scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, affiliated with the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), published their discovery in the journal Systematics of invertebrates.
According to the portal CTVNewsBetween 2008 and 2017, the researchers scoured the Southern Ocean for species known as Promachocrinus, Antarctic feather stars. For example, they discovered a new species they called Promachocrinus fragarius or Antarctic strawberry feather star, they also found six other new species.
The color of the oceans is changing and that could be due to climate change caused by humans
These types of stars can be found at various depths up to 2500 meters deep. The publication highlights that the Antarctic strawberry feather star has 20 feather-shaped arms and the color can be purple or dark red.
The name is derived from the shape of its body which resembles a strawberry.
“A growing number of Antarctic invertebrate taxa have been revealed as cryptic species complexes following DNA-based assessments,” the study describes.
Monitoring of these species is limited by the sampling scale required for their evaluation.
“The vast nature of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean ecosystem requires large-scale sampling to understand the full extent of biodiversity,” it added.
Source: Eluniverso
Mabel is a talented author and journalist with a passion for all things technology. As an experienced writer for the 247 News Agency, she has established a reputation for her in-depth reporting and expert analysis on the latest developments in the tech industry.
