2021 has been a bit of a roller coaster, but one thing that has remained constant has been the myriad of discoveries that have been made over the 12 months. So to end this year with a bit of a bang and celebrate the very place life commenced, we could look at the new marine creatures that have joined us this year!
1.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) may have discovered a previously undiscovered jellyfish drifting around nearly 2,300 feet (700 metres) beneath the surface. The jelly has a blood-red body and appears to belong to the genus Poralia, according to the researchers. Poralia rufescens, which has a bell-shaped body and 30 tentacles and lives in deep water throughout the world's oceans, is the only other Poralia species known to date.
2.
Octopus djinda Amor, 2021 (formerly treated as O. cf. tetricus and O. aff. tetricus) is a new Octopus Cuvier, 1797 species described from the shallow seas off southwest Australia. This species was previously classified as conspecific with O. tetricus Gould, 1852, but it has now been shown to be morphologically and genetically distinct. This description is based on 25 specimens from three locations in southwest Australia, which cover the majority of the species' range. East and west coast types are distinguished by greater and non-overlapping sucker counts on the male's hectocotylised arm. These taxa can also be distinguished via DNA barcoding utilising cytochrome c oxidase subunit I; 13 polymorphisms along a 349 bp partial segment are used (3.7 percent sequence divergence).
3.
Due to their great size and worldwide distribution, beaked whales (ziphiids) are among the most apparent creatures of the deep water, but their taxonomic diversity and much about their natural history remain little understood. Ramari's beaked whale, Mesoplodon eueu, is a new Southern Hemisphere ziphiid species whose name is linked to the Indigenous peoples of the lands from which the species holotype and paratypes were recovered, and whose name is linked to the Indigenous peoples of the lands from which the species holotype and paratypes were recovered. M. eueu and True's beaked whale (M. mirus) from the North Atlantic, with which it was previously subsumed, show reciprocally monophyletic divergence in mitogenome and ddRAD-derived phylogenies. Skull morphometric measurements also differentiate the two species. Divergence occurred around 2 million years ago (Ma), with geneflow ceasing 0.35–0.55 Ma, according to a time-calibrated mitogenome phylogeny and analysis of two nuclear genomes. This is an example of how expanding international collaboration and genome sequencing of archival specimens might help researchers learn more about deep sea biodiversity.
4.
This brittlestar is the last surviving member of a lineage that split from its closest relatives 180 million years ago, just as the dinosaurs were ramping up their attacks. Not only has Ophiojura exbodi been given its own genus, but it has also been given its own family. The fact that it has eight arms instead of the customary five is the most evident distinctive trait.
Its unusual skeletal traits are strikingly comparable to fossils found in early Jurassic rocks from Normandy. It was collected on a seamount – an underwater mountain – named the Durand Bank in New Caledonia in the Pacific.
5.
A new species of Dumbo octopus has been discovered in the deep, complete with unmistakable (and adorable) fins on its head.
The beautiful species, dubbed Emperor Dumbo, was discovered in 2016.
When a bizarre species was caught in one of the German survey ship R/V Sonne's nets near the Aleutian Islands, Alexander Ziegler of Friedrich Wilhelm University in Bonn, Germany, was aboard as the resident biologist. Little is known about Emperor Dumbo at the moment.
Other Dumbo octopuses, however, live on the seafloor at depths of up to 23,000 feet (7,000 m).
They eat worms and amphipods, which are shrimp like crustaceans that they catch by utilising their tentacle webbing as an umbrella to grab food. Due to the scarcity of fast-moving predators in such nutrient-poor habitats, these octopuses lost their capacity to exude ink at some point in their evolutionary history.
And here's to one of the best discoveries (and cartoons)!
Cheers
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