Science&Tech

31 New Species Discovered in Two Weeks of Deep-Sea Exploration off Brazil

An international expedition off Brazil confirmed 31 new midwater species in two weeks, and achieved the first imaging of living 3D cellular structures at sea.

An international team of midwater experts aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor (too) has confirmed more than two dozen new marine species during an expedition off the coast of Brazil, in the tropical South Atlantic Ocean. Using a suite of state-of-the-art imaging systems, the scientists also observed the living, three-dimensional cellular structure of a microbe: a first for seagoing research.

The team set out to explore the ocean’s midwater (the vast realm between the sunlit surface and the seafloor), which is Earth’s largest and least explored habitable ecosystem. It can take scientists decades to identify and describe a single new species; here, the combination of technology and expertise let the team confirm 31 of them as new within a matter of days.

The list spans an extraordinary range of midwater life: an amphipod (a crustacean related to crabs and lobsters); a gossamer worm that moves faster than its body shape suggests it should; nine jellyfish; seven siphonophores (colonial organisms related to jellyfish and corals); seven comb jellies, or ctenophores, famous for the glittering cilia they use to swim; four larvaceans (tadpole-like creatures that live in mucus houses and are more closely related to humans than to invertebrates); and two giant rhizarians, single-celled organisms large enough to see with the naked eye.

The largest habitat on Earth, the midwater, is filled with incredible animals we are only just starting to understand.
Dr. Karen Osborn, Chief Scientist, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

“I continue to be fascinated by the fantastic variety of solutions they have evolved to survive in this formidable environment, and that drives me to keep asking questions about our ocean,” said Osborn. The team witnessed far more diversity and abundance than expected, she added, including glass squid and a pelagic octopus at 800 metres depth feeding on a bright red jellyfish.

A pale octopus, Haliphron atlanticus, grasping a red jellyfish in the dark midwater at 800 metres depth — A female octopus (Haliphron atlanticus) consumes a jellyfish at 800 metres depth. Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute

Imaging life without harming it

The midwater is one of the most difficult places on Earth to study, both for its inaccessibility and its sheer volume. The work was made possible by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s Ocean Shot Research Grant Program, which funded two midwater programmes: one based at the University of Western Australia, the other at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in the United States.

The technologies used to pin down new species combined advanced imaging with genetic analysis. The imaging instruments included DeepPIV (particle image velocimetry) and EyeRIS (remote imaging system), both developed by the Bioinspiration Lab at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and mounted on Schmidt Ocean Institute’s remotely operated vehicle, ROV SuBastian. These non-invasive tools use lasers to scan organisms and build 3D images of them. The team also fitted the ROV with a shadowgraph camera from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), which captures fine anatomical detail that the 3D scans cannot. Together, the instruments let scientists describe an animal’s shape and internal structures without removing the animals from the water.

Laser scan of a translucent siphonophore rendered in fine blue-green detail against black water — A siphonophore (a colonial invertebrate related to the venomous Portuguese man-o-war, Physalia physalis) is scanned with Deep Particle Image Velocimetry (DeepPIV) at 350 metres depth. The species was undescribed before this encounter and is likely new to science. Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute

It’s an incredible honour to not only view and experience this rare and inspiring midwater life, but also to work towards describing and sharing that life broadly through the use of novel, non-invasive technologies.
Dr. Kakani Katija, Principal Engineer, Bioinspiration Lab, MBARI

Bringing the deep sea into the lab

Many midwater animals are gelatinous, with soft, delicate bodies that traditional sampling methods tend to destroy. To work around that, the expedition carried instruments that let scientists observe living animals in conditions that mimic their natural habitat: a virtual-reality chamber developed at the University of Western Australia, and a “gravity machine” built at Stanford University, a specialised microscope that works like a hydrodynamic treadmill, keeping a free-swimming organism in frame indefinitely.

Researchers in a shipboard laboratory transferring small marine animals into imaging equipment — Scientists transfer delicate, gelatinous midwater animals into experimental imaging systems in a laboratory aboard R/V Falkor (too). Credit: Alex Ingle / Schmidt Ocean Institute

A first for science at sea

A second Stanford instrument opened a genuinely new window on midwater physiology. The microscope, known as Squid, is an open-source confocal microscope; with it, the team imaged living internal cellular structures in 3D, a first for research conducted at sea. One of the organisms imaged was a large single-celled microbe called a protist, and Squid let the scientists watch how its cellular structure interacted with its glass skeleton.

Microscopy image of a hyperiid amphipod eye showing a honeycomb lattice of individual cone cells — A microscopic view reveals the complex, honeycomb-like structure of a hyperiid’s eye, a tiny shrimp-like crustacean of the deep ocean. Researchers used 3D confocal live-imaging to capture the individual cone cells that form its compound eyes. Credit: Manu Prakash / Stanford University

We can now witness live internal processes within these extreme organisms, adapted to withstand immense pressure and darkness.
Dr. Manu Prakash, Stanford University

“This opens a new door for researching deep-sea physiology, linking cellular architectures to organism function,” said Prakash. Alongside the imagery, the team sequenced genomes from collected specimens onboard the vessel, work led by Dr. Cheryl Ames of Tohoku University and Dr. John Burns of Bigelow Laboratory, which is what allowed them to confirm new species so quickly.

The novel suite of technologies on this cruise is a glimpse into the future of marine biological science. We look forward to a future in which scientists study marine life as elegantly as this team did, and in virtual reality.
Dr. Jyotika Virmani, Executive Director, Schmidt Ocean Institute

It was Schmidt Ocean Institute’s third cruise with this team of scientists and engineers, part of an ongoing effort to test and refine the midwater toolkit that made these discoveries possible.

Expedition Gallery: Designing the Future, South Atlantic 2025

ROV SuBastian being lowered from R/V Falkor (too) into the South Atlantic — ROV SuBastian is deployed from R/V Falkor (too) for a research dive in the South Atlantic. Credit: Alex Ingle / Schmidt Ocean Institute

Scientists gathering translucent animals in the wet lab of R/V Falkor (too) — ROV SuBastian is deployed from R/V Falkor (too) for a research dive in the South Atlantic. Credit: Alex Ingle / Schmidt Ocean Institute

Images and findings courtesy of Schmidt Ocean Institute. SEVENSEAS Media thanks Schmidt Ocean Institute, and the scientists and engineers of the Designing the Future expedition team, for sharing this work.

About the organisations

Schmidt Ocean Institute was established in 2009 by Eric and Wendy Schmidt to catalyse the discoveries needed to understand the ocean, sustain life, and ensure the health of the planet, through impactful scientific research, technological advancement, open sharing of information, and public engagement. More at schmidtocean.org.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, opened in 1910, is one of the most visited natural history museums in the world, dedicated to preserving and making accessible the world’s most extensive collection of natural history specimens and human artifacts.

Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences is an independent, nonprofit research institute in East Boothbay, Maine, whose scientists study the foundation of global ocean health from the Arctic to the Antarctic.

MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) is a nonprofit oceanographic research centre founded in 1987 by David Packard to advance marine science and engineering and understand the changing ocean.

The University of Western Australia, the state’s first university and a member of the Group of Eight, supports research that turns ambition into real-world impact.