The ocean covers more than 70 percent of Earth’s surface, yet scientists have formally identified only a small fraction of the life it holds.
Researchers estimate there could be around two million marine species, but many remain unnamed or undiscovered.
Often, the official documentation of a new species can take decades, leaving some to vanish before science ever recognizes them.
To tackle this long-standing problem, an international team of researchers has launched the Ocean Species Discoveries project.
The initiative focuses on publishing concise, high-quality species descriptions to shorten the gap between discovery and formal recognition drastically.
By making the process faster and more efficient, it aims to ensure that marine biodiversity is documented before it’s lost to human-driven threats such as deep-sea mining, pollution, and climate change.
“Our shared vision is making taxonomy faster, more efficient, more accessible and more visible,” the team said in their paper.
In its second major collection, published in the Biodiversity Data Journal, over 20 researchers from around the world came together to describe 14 new marine invertebrate species and two new genera.
The discoveries span worms, mollusks, and crustaceans collected from habitats ranging from shallow waters to the ocean’s deepest trenches.
Among the most remarkable finds is Veleropilina gretchenae, a new mollusk species retrieved from the Aleutian Trench at a depth of 6,465 meters.