A week in a university workshop has led to a long list of creatures no one had formally identified before.
Scientists have described 24 previously unknown deep-sea amphipod species from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the central Pacific Ocean, including an entirely new superfamily. The findings were published on March 24 in an open-access special issue of ZooKeys.
The Clarion-Clipperton Zone, or CCZ, stretches across 6 million square kilometres between Hawai’i and Mexico. The study says it remains one of the least understood ecosystems on Earth.
The project was led by Dr Anna Jażdżewska of the University of Lodz and Tammy Horton of the National Oceanography Centre. In 2024, a team of 16 specialists and early-career researchers met for a week-long taxonomy workshop at the University of Lodz’s Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Hydrobiology to identify and describe amphipod species from the region.
Their work is part of the International Seabed Authority’s Sustainable Seabed Knowledge Initiative and its “One Thousand Reasons” project, which aims to formally describe 1,000 new species by the end of the decade.
In total, the team described 24 new species across 10 amphipod families, including predators and scavengers.
The findings included a newly identified family, Mirabestiidae, and a new superfamily, Mirabestioidea. The researchers also described two new genera, Mirabestia and Pseudolepechinella, recorded the deepest known occurrences for several genera, and produced the first molecular barcodes for a number of rare species.
Tammy Horton said, “To find a new superfamily is incredibly exciting, and very rarely happens so this is a discovery we will all remember. With more than 90% of species in the CCZ still unnamed, each species described is a vital step towards improving our understanding of this fascinating ecosystem.”
“Describing the species encountered during these studies is a critical step in documenting the rich biodiversity of the CCZ, enabling us to communicate effectively about the fauna.”
The article says taxonomy, the classification of living things, is essential for understanding the animals that live in the CCZ because it provides information about species identity, distribution and ecological roles in the environment.
Researchers from the National Oceanography Centre described eight of the new species. They worked with collaborators from the University of Lodz, the Natural History Museum in London, the Canadian Museum of Nature, Earth Sciences New Zealand, the University of Hamburg, Senckenberg, the Leibniz Institution for Biodiversity and Earth System Research, and the University Museum of Bergen.
The project also showed how coordinated taxonomy workshops can speed up species discovery through collaboration.
Anna Jażdżewska of the University of Lodz said: “This was a truly collaborative process that allowed us to achieve the ambitious goal of describing more than 20 species new to science within a year, something that would not have been possible if each of us worked independently.
“The team’s findings provide information that is crucial for future conservation and policy decisions, and it highlights how important it is for this work to continue.”
At the current pace of about 25 new species described each year, scientists estimate amphipods in the eastern CCZ could be nearly fully catalogued within the next decade.
The newly described species also came with new names, many of them tied to people, personal experiences and popular culture.
Species were named in honour of the project’s co-leads, including Byblis hortonae, Thrombasia ania, and Byblisoides jazdzewskae. Horton also named Mirabestia Maisie after her daughter.
The team named Eperopeus vermiculatus in honour of the World Register of Marine Species, which they called a “wonderful resource for all marine taxonomists”.
Early-career scientists, including students, also helped name species. One, Lepidepecreum myla, was named after a video game character, with the author noting that both “are just little arthropods trying to survive in total darkness.”
Language shaped at least one name as well. Pseudolepechinella apricity was named for the sense of warmth and friendship that developed during the workshop.
Horton said, “Apricity means the feeling of the warmth of the winter sun, and it is one of my favorite words. It was very apt to use during the workshop as we discussed our findings in the warmth of the February sun amid the snow of the Polish winter in Lodz. It was certainly fitting to also use it for one of our amphipod discoveries.
“We came together as research colleagues, but the spirit of collaboration and shared experience shone through, so it was important to recognize that in our work.”
