Top 10 Marine Species

WoRMS is part of the Ocean Census Alliance and a vital partner in our mission to accelerate the discovery of ocean species.

Every day in labs, museums, and out on fieldwork, taxonomists are busy collecting, cataloguing, identifying, comparing, describing, and naming species new to science.

350 taxonomists globally also contribute their valuable time to keeping the World Register of Marine Species up to date. Today is a chance for us at WoRMS to thank our taxonomic editors for this important task. We celebrate the work of taxonomists now with the WoRMS list of the top-ten marine species described in 2025 as nominated and voted for by taxonomists, journal editors and WoRMS users!

This top-ten list is just a small highlight of on average 2,000 fascinating new marine species discovered every year (there were over 2600 marine species described in 2025 and added to WoRMS (see list here), including some 660 fossil species).

How were the species chosen?

A call for nominations was announced in December 2025, sent to all editors of WoRMS and editors of major taxonomy journals, and posted openly on the WoRMS website and social media channels so anyone had the opportunity to nominate their favorite marine species. Nominated species must have been described between January 1st and December 31st, 2025, and have come from the marine environment (including fossil taxa). A small committee of volunteers (including both taxonomists and data managers) was brought together to decide upon the final candidates. The list is in no hierarchical order.

The final decisions reflect the immense diversity of taxonomic groups in the marine environment (including nematodes, isopods, tunicates and polychaetes) and highlight some of the challenges facing the marine environment today. The final candidates also feature some particularly astonishing marine creatures, notable for their interest to both science and the public.

Each of these marine species has a story. This year the chosen species cover the magnificent, the bewildering and the astonishing! We feature, amongst others, a worm that sets its trap in a sponge, a zoantharian that glows in the dark, and a supergiant isopod which resembles Darth Vader.

If you work in taxonomy or another marine science, you can join the Ocean Census Science Network and be part of our community passionate about driving forward our mission, helping to coordinate opportunities, resources and collaborate.