Viral deep-sea expedition found a real-life Patrick and 57 new species

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorA deep-sea expedition off Argentina went viral for a starfish that looks like Patrick from SpongeBob, and the real find was something else: fifty-seven new species.

2. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorA taxonomy workshop named them, plus five new genera, from samples collected by the underwater robot SuBastian in the Mar del Plata Canyon, which is nearly twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, according to Dexerto.

3. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorAnd the starfish itself drew nearly four million viewers when it was live-streamed in August twenty twenty-five.

4. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorHonestly, it's a star in every sense, and I think...

5. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorNot a new species, though. The team left it undisturbed, and it has no idea it's famous.

6. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorUndisturbed and unbothered. That's a lifestyle.

7. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThe real work was the copepods, tiny crustaceans.

8. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorTaxonomists examined only about ten percent of the samples, and every one they checked was new to science.

9. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorEvery one?

10. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorEvery one. Michelle Taylor of Ocean Census says the deep sea holds some of the least understood ecosystems on Earth.

11. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorA horned sea cucumber nicknamed Loki was also filmed alive at twenty-five hundred seventy-seven meters.

12. 

    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorLoki. Somebody finally gave the sea cucumber a villain arc.

13. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorTwenty taxonomists spent a workshop in Buenos Aires naming fifty-seven animals, and the one everybody knows is the one they left alone.

14. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorPatrick wins again by doing nothing.