A “Sea Pig”.

Who hasn’t always wanted to be a marine biologist? Earth’s oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers are by far the largest untapped and ill-explored territory – which is what makes discoveries like the ones mention by this National Geographic article possible.

“This sea cucumber—held by Sadie Mills of New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research—is known as a sea pig.” … “Sea cucumbers are part of a group of marine animals that inhabit the seafloor, including sea squirts, sea stars (starfish), sea slugs, corals, clams, sponges, and urchins.”

The team from NIWA of NZ (no idea if that is the correct acronym) collected around “30,000 animals, during a marine census of southern Antarctica in early 2008″, many of them considered brand new undiscovered species.

Source: National Geographic News Photo Gallery: Giant, Unknown Animals Found off Antarctica
Via: Boing Boing