If you were unaware of this celebration of all the work that taxonomists do, you can find more here, and here.

Every day in labs, museums, and out on fieldwork, taxonomists are busy collecting, cataloguing, identifying, comparing, describing, and naming species new to science. About 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 almost 2600 marine species described in 2025 and added to WoRMS (see list here), including some 660 fossil species). 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.

Between 2008 and 2018, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) compiled an annual list of the 'Top Ten Species' described from ALL habitats and taxa. The oceans cover over 70% of the surface of our planet, and yet they still include the least explored regions. Although the ESF list often contained one or two marine species, we decided to pay homage to the ‘largest habitat on earth’ by producing our own list of the top marine species.

Curious about the actual list? Quickly check out the full press release on the link below!