- The Mystery Mollusc, Bathydevius caudactylus
- The Divine Dragon Glistenworm, Chaetoderma shenloong
- The Mimic Worm, Cryptochaetosyllis imitatio
- The Freely Branched Pterobranch, Rhabdopleura emancipata
- John Hooper’s Carnivorous Sponge, Abyssocladia johnhooperi
- The Ranma Tanaid, Apseudes ranma
- Shimomura’s Bean-Shaped Isopod, Anthuroniscus shimomurai
- Scripps Cousins Wood-Dwelling Seastar, Caymanostella scrippscognaticausa
- The Paired-Lure Anglerfish, Gigantactis paresca
- The Chimera Mantis Shrimp, Incertasquilla chimera
As for previous years, the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) has again released its annual list of the top-ten marine species described by researchers during the past year to coincide with World Taxonomist Appreciation Day on March 19th!
If you were unaware of this celebration of all the work that taxonomists do, you can find more here, and here.
Every day in labs, museums, and out on fieldwork, taxonomists are busy collecting, cataloguing, identifying, comparing, describing, and naming species new to science. Over 340 taxonomists globally also contribute their valuable time to keeping the World Register of Marine Species up to date. Today is a chance for us at WoRMS to thank our taxonomic editors for this important task. We celebrate the work of taxonomists now with the WoRMS list of the top-ten marine species described in 2024 as nominated and voted for by taxonomists, journal editors and WoRMS users!
This top-ten list is just a small highlight of on average 2,000 fascinating new marine species discovered every year (there were over 3200 marine species described in 2024 and added to WoRMS (see list here), including some 610 fossil species).
How were the species chosen?
A call for nominations was announced in December 2024, sent to all editors of WoRMS and editors of major taxonomy journals, and posted openly on the WoRMS website and social media so anyone had the opportunity to nominate their favorite marine species. Nominated species must have been described between January 1st and December 31st, 2024, and have come from the marine environment (including fossil taxa). A small committee of volunteers (including both taxonomists and data managers) was brought together to decide upon the final candidates. The list is in no hierarchical order.
The final decisions reflect the immense diversity of taxonomic groups in the marine environment (including crustaceans, corals, sponges, jellies and worms) and highlight some of the challenges facing the marine environment today. The final candidates also feature some particularly astonishing marine creatures, notable for their interest to both science and the public.
Each of these marine species has a story. This year the chosen species cover the weird, the bewildering and the astonishing! We feature, amongst others, a mystery mollusc, a worm mimicking a nudibranch, a branched pterobranch and an anglerfish with two lures.
About the WoRMS top-ten list of Marine Species
After 250 years of describing, naming and cataloguing the species we share our planet with, we are still some way off from achieving a complete census. However, we do know that at least 247,000 marine species have been described because their names are managed in WoRMS by over 340 scientists located all over the world.
In 2018, to celebrate a decade of WoRMS’ existence, we compiled a list of our top marine species, both for 2017 and for the previous decade in order to highlight the fascinating discoveries of the numerous new marine species being made every year (see https://www.marinespecies.org/worms-top-ten/2007-2017/press-release).
We decided to continue this process every year as a celebration of the work that taxonomists do and of the fascinating marine species that are iscovered each year. Our previous lists of the top-ten marine species described for the decade 2007–2017, for 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 can be found here:
- https://www.marinespecies.org/worms-top-ten/2007-2017
- https://www.marinespecies.org/worms-top-ten/2017
- https://www.marinespecies.org/worms-top-ten/2018
- https://www.marinespecies.org/worms-top-ten/2019
- https://www.marinespecies.org/worms-top-ten/2020
- https://www.marinespecies.org/worms-top-ten/2021
- https://www.marinespecies.org/worms-top-ten/2022
- https://www.marinespecies.org/worms-top-ten/2023
Between 2008 and 2018, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) compiled an annual list of the ‘Top Ten Species’ described from ALL habitats and taxa. The oceans cover over 70% of the surface of our planet, and yet they still include the least explored regions. Although the ESF list often contained one or two marine species, we decided to pay homage to the ‘largest habitat on earth’ by producing our own list of the top marine species.
We hope some of our favourites will make it to the global list!
The WoRMS Top Ten Marine Species 2024 would not have been possible without the collaboration between the WoRMS Data Management Team (DMT), the WoRMS Top Ten Decision Committee, the WoRMS Steering Committee (SC) and voluntary contributions by many of the WoRMS editors.
WoRMS – as ABC WoRMS – is an endorsed action under the UN Ocean Decade.
WoRMS and Ocean Census have a partnership to enhance rapid discovery and identification of marine life.
