This research is the result of an international project, involving 334 scientists from 34 countries, including Canada. The project was part of the census of marine life, an ambitious 10-year-effort recording 17,650 species living below 656 feet.

"Parts of the deep sea that we assumed were homogenous are actually quite complex," states Robert S. Carney, an oceanographer at Louisiana State University and a lead researcher on the deep seas.

The scientists say they could announce that a million or more species remain unknown. On land, biologists have catalogued about 1.5 million plants and animals.