Using a remotely operated Lu’ukai vehicle from the University of Hawaii, on an expedition to the western Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) aboard the RV Kilo Moana in 2018, several new species have been identified 4.5 kilometers from depth.
Specifically, two new genera and four new species of giant unicellular xenophores (protozoa that belong to a group called foraminifera).
Moana
The xenofóforos shells constructed of composite particles obtained from the surrounding environment. These are elaborate structures that can reach sizes of ten centimeters or more.
Found in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, they have been named Moanamina, one of the new genera, in honor of Moana (sea in Hawaiian), while the second has been named Abyssalia, in recognition of its abyssal habitat.
As study author Andrew Gooday, a professor at the National Oceanography Center (NOC) in the UK, explains:
These four new species and two new genera have increased the number of xenophophors described in the CCZ chasm to 17 (22% of the global total for this group), with many more known but not yet described. This part of the Pacific Ocean is clearly a critical point of xenophiophor diversity.