A marine census has documented 7,500 species in the Antarctic and 5,500 in the Arctic. Several hundred species are even 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,” says a researcher from the Australian Antarctic Division. “We are rewriting the textbooks.”

Researchers were surprised to discover dozens of species common to both polar seas. Even they are separated by nearly 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometers), they are the same on the top and bottom of the planet. Now, how’d that happen?

The new discoveries were primarily simpler life – invertebrates. “Researchers found sea spider species as big as a human hand, and tiny, shrimp-like crustaceans in the Arctic basin that live at a depth of 9,850 feet (3,000 meters).” (more…)