Patrick the Viral Sea Star Isn’t New. 57 Species in His Canyon Probably Are

The breakout star of a 2025 deep-sea expedition off Argentina was an orange sea star nicknamed Patrick, who went viral during a livestream that drew more than 4 million viewers. Patrick, it turns out, is not a new species. The canyon he lives in, however, appears to have been hiding 57 of them.¹

In July 2026, 20 taxonomists (scientists whose job is identifying and naming living things) from Latin America and Europe spent about two weeks in Buenos Aires sorting samples from the Mar del Plata Submarine Canyon.⁵ Their tally was 57 species and five genera that look new to science. A genus is a group of closely related species, so finding five new ones is like discovering whole new branches of the family tree, not just a few surprise cousins.²

The workshop was led by the Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census with the Schmidt Ocean Institute, and the two groups announced the results on Oct. 1.² One important footnote: these species are preliminary. Most still need a formal scientific description before they become official.⁵

Meet Loki, Who Brought His Own Horns

The new headliner is a sea cucumber nicknamed Loki. It sports two horn-like appendages, which is the sea cucumber version of showing up to a business meeting in a Viking helmet. It was filmed 2,577 meters down.²

"Loki" is a nickname, not a formal name. So far scientists have placed the animal in the genus Peniagone, and its official species name will come later. Taxonomists Francisco Alonso Solís-Marín and Mariano Martinez identified it.⁵ Loki is also one of up to 10 new sea cucumber species turned up during the workshop, so it may need to share the spotlight eventually.²

A Guest List Heavy on Copepods

Here is who made the list:⁵

• 20 copepods, tiny crustaceans
• 22 echinoderms, including sea cucumbers and crinoids
• 14 cnidarians, including octocorals, sea pens and stony corals
• One tusk shell, a mollusc that presumably got seated at the kids' table

The copepod number is the one that should make you sit up. The team examined only about a tenth of the copepod samples, and every single specimen they looked at was new, adding up to 20 species and one new genus.¹ That is like opening one box in 10 at a yard sale and finding nothing but kitchen gadgets nobody has ever seen. The other nine boxes are still waiting.

The count has already grown. When the expedition wrapped up in August 2025, scientists suspected more than 40 new species.⁵

Why This Canyon Is So Crowded

Most of the samples came from the Schmidt Ocean Institute's "Underwater Oases of the Mar del Plata Canyon" expedition. It used the research vessel Falkor (too) and SuBastian, a remotely operated vehicle (a robot submarine steered from the ship).³

The expedition focused on the Brazil-Malvinas Confluence, where warm subtropical currents run into cold, nutrient-rich water from near Antarctica.³ When warm meets cold and food comes along for the ride, life tends to move in.

"The deep sea holds some of the least understood ecosystems on Earth," said Michelle Taylor, head of science at Ocean Census, according to Mongabay.¹

The new species went straight onto Ocean Census NOVA, which is billed as the first open-access data platform for newly discovered marine species. That means researchers anywhere can see them while the slow work of formal description continues.²

As for Patrick, scientists left him right where they found him on the seafloor.¹ He has 4 million fans and no idea that 57 neighbors just stole his thunder.