Out in the tropical South Atlantic, a science ship has done in days what can often take years.

Working in international waters aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Falkor (too), an international team identified more than two dozen new marine species, according to Ocean News & Technology. The finds came from the ocean’s “midwater,” a vast, dimly lit zone between surface waters and the deep seafloor.

The confirmed new species included jellyfish, siphonophores, comb jellies, larvaceans, a crustacean, a fast-moving gossamer worm, and giant single-celled organisms called rhizarians.

Researchers used laser-based imaging, shipboard DNA sequencing, and next-generation microscopes to speed up the work. Schmidt Ocean Institute said an onboard microscope called Squid let scientists capture 3D views of a living marine microbe’s internal cell structures, a first for shipboard research.

The team also used the remotely operated vehicle SuBastian to laser-scan delicate midwater animals and generate 3D images without harming them. By combining those imaging systems with genetic sequencing on the ship, researchers were able to determine which organisms were new species much faster than through the traditional process, which can take decades.

“The largest habitat on Earth, the midwater, is filled with incredible animals we are only just starting to understand,” said the expedition’s chief scientist, Dr. Karen Osborn of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

The midwater plays a major role in how carbon moves through the ocean, how marine food webs function, and how the planet regulates climate. Scientists said learning what lives there and how those organisms survive can improve ocean science, fisheries research, and climate forecasting.

The new tools could also help conservation. Many midwater animals are gelatinous and easily damaged by nets or other standard collection methods, so noninvasive technology gives scientists a way to study them without destroying them.

Stanford University’s Dr. Manu Prakash said the shipboard imaging breakthrough “opens a new door for researching deep-sea physiology,” allowing scientists to witness “live internal processes” in organisms adapted to intense pressure and darkness.