Scientists Confirm 57 New Marine Species in Argentina's Deep Sea

Editorial Deep Dive & Context

A two-week International Species Discovery Workshop held in Buenos Aires from July 13–24, 2026, confirmed the identification of 57 new marine species and five new genera collected during the 2025 Schmidt Ocean Institute Underwater Oases of the Mar del Plata Canyon expedition. The research vessel Falkor (too) utilized the remotely operated vehicle SuBastian to explore depths exceeding 3,500 meters in the Brazil-Malvinas Confluence, an area where warm subtropical currents meet cold sub-Antarctic waters. The workshop, led by Principal Investigator Dr. Daniel Lauretta and hosted at Universidad Maimónides, brought together 20 taxonomists from Latin America and Europe. They employed integrated taxonomy techniques to rapidly identify specimens, logging findings on the open-access Ocean Census NOVA platform. Key discoveries include 'Loki the Sea Cucumber' (Peniagone sp.) found at 2,577 meters, 20 new copepod species, 22 echinoderms, 14 cnidarians, and one scaphopod mollusc. Samples were permanently housed at the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia” (MACN). The expedition’s live broadcasts reached over four million viewers. A follow-up expedition is planned for February–March 2027 to explore another submarine canyon with suspected high endemism

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