10 More Highlights from the Marine Census of Life

For background and more, see 10 Highlights from the Marine Census of Life.

1. Thriving (if Small) Life in Salty Water
   Arctic waters that have the saltiest cold water on the planet — six times saltier than average — are thick with diatoms, algae and flagellates.

2. 100 New Hawaiian Species
   Surveys of the French Frigate Shoals, the smallest northern Hawaiian islands protected as a marine conservation area by President Bush, have yielded more than 100 new species.

3. A Gulf of Mexico "Carpet of Bugs"
   A 1,500-feet-deep canyon in the Gulf of Mexico is thick with a new amphipod species, Ampelisca mississippiana, which blankets the area with up to 12,000 individuals per square meter — creating a "carpet of bugs."

4. A New Deep-Water Predator
   Nearly 4.5 miles deep, scientists have discovered a predator where they thought food sources were too thin to support one. But a new species of comb jelly in the Ryukyu Trench near Japan is the deepest ever recorded of this predator, which "flies like a kite on the end of two long 'strings' attached to the bottom." Next question: What's it eat?

5. Antarctic Diversity
   Scientists exploring the Southern Ocean have discovered many new species, including a rare mollusk that may lead to evolutionary insights, sea cucumbers, sponges and komokiaceans (little-known chalklike protozoa).

6. The Arctic Is for Jellys
   The Canadian Basin of the Arctic Ocean is a hotbed for tiny gelatinous zooplankton, including at least one new species of jelly fish.

7. Little Creatures Tallied
   At least 85 new species of zooplankton — tiny animals that drift or swim and that form the base of the food web — have been described in the Atlantic, between Germany and South Africa.

8. Global Warming Yield
   The collapse of the Larsen A and B ice shelves in Antarctica gave scientists access to a new portion of the Weddell Sea. They found about 1,000 species, including four new cnidarians and 15 shrimplike amphipods, including the biggest ever, at about 4 inches.

9. South African Diversity Expanding 50%
   Researchers believe they will add 6,000 species — mostly small marine animals — to the list of 11,130 known species around South Africa.

10. 870 Squat Lobsters Described
    Scientists have listed 870 known species of squat lobsters, and included all relevant information about their distribution, DNA, etc. in an electronic library that will ultimately describe all marine creatures.

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