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World-first deep-sea DNA study reveals global connectivity of marine life
GLOBAL OCEANS, JUL 23 – The study analyzed DNA from 2,699 brittle star specimens revealing deep-sea species disperse globally across oceans over millions of years via slow-moving larvae currents, researchers said.
- A world-first study published today in Nature mapped the global connectivity of brittle stars using DNA from 2,699 specimens in 48 natural history museums worldwide.
- Researchers conducted the study to understand how deep-sea species disperse across oceans despite extreme conditions like cold, darkness, and high pressure known for over 150 years.
- The study found that brittle stars spread via yolk-rich larvae that drift on slow deep-sea currents for over a year, linking populations across oceans through a connected biological 'superhighway'.
- Dr. O'Hara explained that although these creatures lack fins and wings, they have nonetheless dispersed across vast oceanic distances, demonstrating widespread connectivity on a global scale.
- This finding revolutionizes our comprehension of deep-sea evolution and highlights the urgent importance of worldwide protection measures as pressures from underwater mining and environmental changes continue to escalate.
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12 Articles
Five arms, no heart and a global family: what DNA revealed about the weird deep-sea world of brittle stars
A brittle star of the species _Gorgonocephalus eucnemis_. Lagunatic Photo / Getty ImagesYou may have read that the deep sea is a very different environment from the land and shallow water. There is no light, it is very cold, and the pressure of all the water above is immense. Plants can’t grow there, and the energy powering life mostly comes from organic matter sinking from the sunlit surface. These facts have been known for more than 150 years.…
World-first deep-sea DNA study reveals global connectivity of marine life
A world-first study led by Museums Victoria Research Institute has revealed that beneath the cold, dark, pressurized world of the deep sea, marine life is far more globally connected than previously imagined.
The deep sea is a globally connected habitat
The deep sea is a distinctive environment, distinguished from surface waters by darkness, cold and immense pressures. Global data reveal how much more connected deep-sea life is than life in the shallows; a deep-sea animal has spread from Iceland to Tasmania, Australia, over a relatively short evolutionary time period. Deep-sea brittlestars are more evolutionarily connected around the globe than previously thought.
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