Researchers from the UK’s Natural History Museum used a remotely operated vehicle to collect samples from the Clarion-Clipperton Abyssal Plains in the central Pacific. Previously, creatures from this region had only been studied from photographs. The study, published in the journal Zookeys, found that there is a wide variety of species of larger organisms in the abyss. Of the 55 specimens recovered, 48 were of different species. Psychropotes verrucicaudatus, newly discovered using robot technology. Photo: Courtesy of DeepCCZ Mission/Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation & NOAA Animals found include segmented worms, invertebrates from the same family as centipedes, marine animals from the same family as jellyfish, and different types of coral. Thirty-six specimens were found at depths greater than 4,800 meters, two were collected on a sea slope at 4,125 meters, and 17 were found at depths between 3,095 and 3,562 meters. The findings have potentially important implications for deep-sea mining, as people become more interested in mining minerals from the seabed because it appears the activity has the potential to disturb many creatures. Peniagone vitrea in situ. Photo: Courtesy of DeepCCZ Mission/Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation & NOAA The study’s lead author, Dr Guadalupe Bribiesca-Contreras, of the Natural History Museum, said: “This research is important not only because of the number of potentially new species discovered, but because these megafauna specimens had previously only been studied from seabed images . “Without the samples and the DNA data they hold, we cannot properly identify the animals and understand how many different species there are.” Dr Adrian Glover, who leads the Natural History Museum’s deep-sea research team, said: “We know that millimeter-sized animals called macrofauna are extremely biodiverse in the abyss. However, we’ve never really had much information about the larger animals we call megafauna, as so few specimens have been collected. This study is the first to suggest that diversity can be very high in these groups as well.”