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Possible New Species Discovered in Celebes Sea

By zooillogix on October 16, 2007.

The AP just reported that project leader Dr. Larry Madin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Phillipine scientists returned from two weeks in the Celebes Sea, located off the Phillippines southernmost archipelago, this Tuesday with some potential new deep sea discoveries. Among the more interesting finds were a strange black jellyfish, a transparent sea cucumber and a spiny orange worm that had 10 squid-like tentacles. "I'll have to try a bite of each one with Old Bay before we determine whether they are truly new species or not" Dr. Madin joked. Adding, "you think I'm kidding, but I'm totally not."

The Celebes Sea is surrounded by islands and shallow reefs but is 16,500 feet, almost 3 miles, at its deepest. It is considered a treasure trove for bio-diversity and is thought to have been the birth place of countless species over hundreds of millions of years, including my brother.

i-153e0e725b4c56ccbd54b816a8a5c7af-fruits de la mar.jpg
The scientific name for this is Fruits de la mer

i-34baa266702097e6a3684397cb52e3e4-boxfish.jpg
Unidentified boxfish

i-bb25313206c17e6c71c2a277a64bf139-red medusa jellyfish atolla.jpg
Red medusa jellyfish, atolla

more...

i-26dc6ff3963948ae477c6aa9c053216c-larval squid.jpg
Larval squid

i-58c24841385490fedaf2b78b9235c0da-translucent jellyfish.jpg
Unidentified translucent jellyfish... where the hell are the pictures of the "rare black jellyfish" everyone is talking about...? We would like to know too.

Tags
fish
jellyfish
new species
shrimp
boxfish
Celebes Sea
squid

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Fruits de la mer

I sure do love this blog. It's like The Onion does zoology! Two great tastes that taste great together.

I hate when scientists talk about an amazing new creature they've found and then show you everything but. We'll probably have to buy some special edition National Geographic to get a glimpse. That red jelly is pretty impressive though. Looks like it has a pyramid in that little bubble dome on top.

By Laughing Stone (not verified) on 17 Oct 2007 #permalink

By the way, did you guys find pictures of the spiny-orange-squid-worm? It's really interesting and I can't find it.

Everyone knows scientists speak Latin. What's with all this badly pronounced provincial stuf? The correct and much less pretty name is fructus mare.

Here's the best I can do for a black jellyfish. It's from the Shanghai Aquarium, though:

http://tinyurl.com/2ncg7l

By na gCopaleen (not verified) on 21 Oct 2007 #permalink

Weird that there are so many creatures in the Celebes Sea...I'd think it would be devoid of life after a generation. ^_^