The World Watched a Starfish. Scientists Found 57 New Species.

In August 2025, around four million people watched a live stream from the bottom of the ocean and fell in love with a bright orange starfish that looked exactly like Patrick Star. But the starfish wasn’t the discovery. Down in Argentina’s Mar del Plata Canyon, nearly twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, a robot had collected animals no one on Earth had ever named.

A year later, 20 scientists from Latin America and Europe gathered in Buenos Aires for two weeks and identified 57 species that look new to science, plus 5 new genera, including a horned sea cucumber nicknamed “Loki.” They only had time to examine 10% of the copepod samples, and every single one was new.

In this film

• The Brazil–Malvinas Confluence, where warm and cold currents collide and life explodes
• How a “Patrick Star” starfish became an internet sensation
• The live moment scientists spotted a “chanchito,” a sea cucumber walking on tiny legs
• Loki, the horned Peniagone, found 2,577 meters down
• Why it takes more than 13.5 years, on average, to formally describe a species

Explore the species

Every discovery is logged on Ocean Census NOVA, an open database anyone can browse. You can also watch Schmidt Ocean Institute’s deep-sea dives.

Footage: Schmidt Ocean Institute. Interviews: The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census. Spanish interviews shown with English subtitles. Narration: AI voice. Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0.