‘Tiny’ creature — with long polyps and tentacles — found near AL coast is new species
A new small sea creature was discovered during a recent offshore expedition near the Alabama coast, scientists said.
Parasphaerasclera mcfaddenae is a new species of soft coral that has a yellow center and long polyps with tentacles, according to a study published March 10 in Zootaxa, a scientific journal for taxonomists.
The discovery is surprising because the family of corals was known to exist only in the tropical Indo-Pacific and South Africa regions, scientists said. Additionally, the Gulf of Mexico — also known as the Gulf of America — where the coral was found is “perhaps one of the most well-explored regions in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone,” according to the study.
Declan Morrissey, a zoologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, told McClatchy News the coral was discovered in the colorful mesophotic zone of the ocean located between the surface and deep ocean.
“It can be hard to spot everything in the chaos,” Morrissey said. “It’s tiny!”
According to the study, the new coral species was collected during a July 2022 expedition aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship, but Luke McCartin, a biologist at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, told McClatchy News the first sample of the coral’s DNA was collected before then.
“When we sample seawater through eDNA sampling and analysis, we can capture and sequence DNA from corals that may be overlooked and not collected. That was the case for this species,” McCartin said in a March 10 email.
He said he noticed a DNA sequence in the seawater sample that was different from other known sequences, but it wasn’t until Andrea Quattrini, a zoologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, sent him a sequence from the NOAA expedition that he felt confident in his findings.
“I found it was a nearly perfect match to the eDNA sequence I’d found previously,” McCartin said.
Quattrini told McClatchy News she also thinks this species of coral may have been previously overlooked because of its size.
“This species is relatively small and attaches to hard substrates at greater depths, so it is difficult to observe,” she said in a March 10 email.
What to know about soft corals
There are about 160 documented sea anemones and corals, with 11 soft coral species in the Gulf of Mexico, according to scientists.
Soft corals are creatures with bendable bodies that resemble plants, according to the Coral Reef Alliance.
Nine nominal species are included in the Parasphaerasclera genus, but what makes mcfaddenae unique is its appearance, with its sclerites — part of its microskeleton — having small nodules not seen in other related species.
Some soft corals can be invasive and have negative impacts on local communities, which is why it’s important to continue exploring coral communities, scientists said.
“Even when we think we know everything, or that we think we have a grasp on what species occur in our environment, we don’t,” Morrissey told McClatchy News.
He said reports on new species being found in deeper waters in the Gulf of Mexico are expected to publish in the next year or so.
This story was originally published March 10, 2025 at 3:30 PM with the headline "‘Tiny’ creature — with long polyps and tentacles — found near AL coast is new species."
