Marine Census Reveals Underwater Wonders

In a preview of the new Marine Census, due to be released in 2010, scientists presented some amazing discoveries, made over the course of the past couple of years. Among the most interesting things, they mentioned a "city" of brittle stars and an Antarctic octopus route, where the animals ride on a current of extra-salty water. In the Gulf of Mexico, researchers discovered a high concentration of tiny crustaceans on the ocean floors, with as much as 12,000 of the small creatures inhabiting an area as small as 1 square meter.

This fourth update on the census was released just ahead of the next Census meeting, scheduled to take place in Valencia, Spain, on Tuesday. During the conference, some 2,000 scientists from 82 countries will report their latest discoveries, and will add them to what is already known about the biodiversity of the planet's oceans. By working in collaboration with the PLoS ONE Journal, scientists with the Census hope to be able to make the information they obtain available to the open-public...[Softpedia]