A mysterious “star-like” creature has been discovered in the depths of the world’s oceans: scientists are amazed

“We don’t yet know where it is on the tree of life.”

Marine researchers on a mission to record life hidden in the world’s oceans say they have discovered nearly 100 potential new species, including one mysterious star-like creature.

The expedition team focused its research on the 500-mile (800-kilometer) Bounty Trench, a little-studied part of the ocean off the coast of New Zealand, east of the South Island. The scientists’ three-week voyage aboard the research vessel Tangaroa, owned by the country’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, took place in February.

The research team collected nearly 1,800 samples from depths of up to 3 miles (4,800 meters), revealing species of fish, squid, shellfish and coral that they believe are new to science, CNN reported.

“You have this large area off the east coast of New Zealand where there are just absolutely not enough data collection points. We don’t know anything about it,” said Dr Daniel Moore, scientific director of the Ocean Census expedition, a new alliance launched in April 2023 that aims to identify 100,000 unknown species over the next 10 years. “It was real research, very exciting.”

Over the next three weeks, the team of scientists will sort and describe the deep-sea finds to confirm whether they are newly discovered species.

The team’s scientists were puzzled by one discovery they initially thought was a type of sea star or sea anemone.

“It’s still a mystery. We can’t even determine his family. We don’t know where it is on the tree of life yet, so that will be interesting,” Moore said.

Dr Mikela Mitchell, taxonomist for the Queensland Museum Network, said in a statement released by Ocean Census that it could be a species of deep-sea coral called octocoral.

“What’s even more interesting is that this could be a completely new group outside of the octocorals. If so, this is an important find for the deep sea and gives us a much clearer understanding of the planet’s unique biodiversity,” the statement said.

Dr Moore admits he was surprised that the team discovered a new species of fish, known as an eel, which was “instantly recognized as being different from the others”.

“Discoveries of new vertebrates are rare. There are hundreds of thousands of invertebrates in the sea that we still don’t know. Vertebrates, we like to think we know what’s out there, but the reality is we just don’t,” he said.

To collect samples, the vessel towed three different types of trawls depending on the terrain. These included a traditional beam trawl that towed a net to collect samples, a heavy-duty underwater rock sled and another device that sampled water directly above the seafloor, and a towed underwater camera.

Huge gaps remain in scientific knowledge about the deep ocean. Of the 2.2 million species believed to exist in Earth’s oceans, only 240,000 have been described by scientists, according to the Ocean Census.