Scientists have discovered the remains of a new species of sea creature buried deep beneath the sediment under the Arctic Ocean.
The creature is an ancient species of bivalve mollusk never before categorized by science, its discoverers said in a news release Wednesday. Not only is it considered a new species, but it differs enough from other known types of mollusk that it's been scientifically classified in its own category, or genus.
Scientists found evidence of the creature during a joint U.S.-Canadian icebreaker expedition to map the floor of the Arctic Ocean in the summer of 2010. The icebreaker vessel occasionally stopped to drill out layered core samples from the ocean floor, and several of those samples contained shells from the mollusk.
The shells were found buried 4.5 metres beneath the ocean floor under an "unusual seafloor mound," according to a news release issued Wednesday.
Scientists Paul Valentich-Scott, Charles L. Powell, Brian D. Edwards and Thomas D. Lorenson are credited with collecting, analyzing and identifying the never-before-seen creature. It took them years to collect the shell samples from the cores, and to verify that the creature was new to science.
Dubbed the Wallerconcha sarae, the newly-discovered mollusk is believed to have lived over a million years ago, though scientists cannot discount the possibility that it may still be alive today.
The mollusk's name pays homage to paleontologist Thomas R. Waller and to Sara Powell, daughter of one of the mollusk's co-founders.
"I want to name new species after all of my children," scientist Charles L. Powell says in the news release.
Valentich-Scott says he's discovered other new species in his career, but finding a new one never loses its thrill.
"It is always exciting when you are the first person to be looking at a new creature," he said.
Valentich-Scott works at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, while Edwards, Powell and Lorenson are scientists with the United States Geological Survey.
