Friday October 2, 2026
Oceanographic —
A sea cucumber adorned with a pair of horned appendages has earned itself the nickname ‘Loki’ for its resemblance to the Norse god and is one of 57 new marine species identified from the depths of the South Atlantic in just two weeks.
‘Loki the sea cucumber’ was found at a depth of 2,577 metres in the Mar del Plata Submarine Canyon off Argentina. It was identified by taxonomists Francisco Alonso Solis-Marin and Mariano Martinez, and is one of up to ten new holothurian species uncovered during the workshop.
In situ images and video of the animal were captured on the seafloor.
Loki is one of the headline finds from a Species Discovery Workshop led by the Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census in partnership with the Schmidt Ocean Institute. It also produced five new scientific genera, spanning corals, sea cucumbers, and crustaceans.
The workshop brought together 20 taxonomists and early-career researchers from across Latin America and Europe. It was hosted at the Universidad Maimónides in Buenos Aires in collaboration with Schmidt Ocean Institute, CONICET and the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales.