There's always a lot going on in the deep ocean, but anyone who had “carnivorous 'death-ball' sponge” on their bingo card for 2025 deserves to win the prize. It's one of 30 new species discovered by researchers exploring the deep dark depths of the Southern Ocean, some of them pretty peculiar – even for the deep-sea. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

The Nippon Foundation–Nekton Ocean Census confirmed the previously unknown deep-sea weirdos as new species following two cruises to explore the area. The most surprising of these new creatures is a species of sponge in the Chondrocladia genus, which, rather than calmly filter feeding on the seafloor, has chosen violence.

The sponge was discovered at 3,601 meters (11,814

See Full Page