Discovering many new creatures in the Indonesian sea

Scientists use modern technology to explore the waters off Indonesia. The results were surprising and impressive when they captured the colorful and diverse images of newly discovered creatures, including many new charming sea lilies.

According to CTV (Canada), the researchers discovered at least 50 new plant and animal species on a three-week expedition, ending on August 14, 2010, within nearly 54,000 km2 in the northern waters of Indonesia. .

Unique new purple octopus species discovered.

They captured more than 100,000 photos and recorded more than 100 hours of life on the Indonesian seabed, at different depths from 240 m to over 1,600 m using a scuba diving device equipped with high resolution cameras. remote controller.

Professor Verena Tunnicliffe, working at Victoria University (Canada), said images provide a different perspective on one of the most complex and less known marine ecosystems on earth.

'Sea lilies (echinoderms) have grown extensively in the oceans, including shallow and deep seas, but now they are rare. I only saw a few species in my research career. However, when I participated in this expedition, I was really surprised to find them very diverse , 'Ms. Tunnicliffe said in a press release.

Similarly, Mrs. Tunnicliffe had seen sea spiders before, but they were tiny, only about 2.5 cm long, but the sea spiders in Indonesia waters were huge, reaching about 20 cm in length or more. .

One of the exotic animals that looks like a flower - which scientists have filmed - is equipped with pink sharp spikes covered with adhesive that can catch prey when it accidentally swims across, they think it's a carnivorous sponge. In addition, they observed lavender-colored fish that could be moved by 'walking' on the seabed.

'I noticed that at least 40 species of new deep-sea corals and at least 50 new species of plants and animals including shrimp, crabs, sponges, mussels, mollusks, anemones and sea cucumbers were discovered during the expedition This is dangerous , 'Ms. Tunnicliffe said.

Scientists say they will continue to study and describe scientific discoveries of new species in Indonesian waters in the following years.

Here are the unique new marine creatures discovered:

Sea lilies with bright red "arms" at a depth of 516 m.

Giant crunchy sea star at a depth of 555 m.

New fish 'know' under the seabed.

Another beautiful sea lily.

A crab species lives at a depth of 516 m.

View of the life of the snail, anemones and soft corals on the sea floor of Indonesia.

Close up of Paragorgia arborea coral at a depth of 1,588 m.

Sea anemone has white 'arms' that catch prey.

Black coral and shrimp at a depth of 616 m.

Attractive purple sea lily species at a depth of 714 m.

Sea urchins at a depth of 1,951m.

A new species at a depth of 2,099 m has never been known.

Bathypterois grallator fish has poison at a depth of 2,100 m.

A species of sea cucumber at a depth of 3,205 m.

Another newly discovered species of shrimp.

Photo: oceanexplorer.noaa.gov