BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — The polar oceans are not biological deserts after all. A marine census released Monday documented 7,500 species in the Antarctic and 5,500 in the Arctic, including several hundred that researchers believe could be new to science. “The textbooks have said there is less diversity at the poles than the tropics, but we found astonishing richness of marine life in the Antarctic and Arctic oceans,” said Victoria Wadley, a researcher from the Australian Antarctic Division who took part in the Antarctic survey. “We are rewriting the textbooks.” In one of the biggest surprises, researchers said they discovered dozens of species common to both polar seas.——Contact The Daily Reveille’s news staff at [email protected]
Study: ‘Richness in polar sea species’
By The Associated Press
February 15, 2009