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Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Brownish grey rocks and sand on the dark seafloor are illuminated by a flood light, showing patches of yellow, orange and pink sponges. Purple, white, and yellow soft corals are attached to the rocks, and long feathery arms of crinoids poke out of crevices.

MDBC News & Highlights

Updates

March 10, 2025. Andrea Quatrini and Declan Morrissey: New paper describing a new species of octocoral collected during an MDBC cruise.

  • Quattrini, Andrea M., Morrissey, Declan, and McCartin, Luke J. 2025. "A new soft coral species from the Gulf of Mexico (Octocorallia: Scleralcyonacea: Parasphaerascleridae)." Zootaxa, 5601, (3) 545–557. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5601.3.8 

February 2025. NMNH-MDBC Education and Outreach team participated in Valentines Day educational program that highlighted different symbiotic relationships of invertebrates with corals in MDBCs.

January 10, 2025. A miniature king crab collected by NMNH staff in 2024 is declared "the cutest, spikiest, tiniest crab in the world". Thousands agree. Viral Video Reveals Cutest Crab Baby: 'Ridiculous Creature' - Newsweek

December 2024. Carmen Cobo: new paper with the description of two new solenogaster species collected with ARMS

  • Cobo, M. C., Farris, W. J., Olson, C. J., McLaughlin, E. L., & Kocot, K. M. (2024). Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) as a tool to uncover neglected marine biodiversity: two new Solenogastres (Mollusca, Aplacophora) from the Gulf of Mexico. ZooKeys, 1221, 401.

November 26, 2024. Ocean research ends up at the Smithsonian. Follow a coral on its journey from the NOAA vessel where it is collected to the National Museum of Natural History where it is catalogued and preserved for future scientific reference.

A Fantastic Journey: From the Seafloor to the Museum Collection - NCCOS - National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science

A Fantastic Journey: From the Seafloor to the Museum Collection | Smithsonian Ocean

September 2024. Paula Rodriguez-Flores and Martha Nizinski: new paper in Zoosystematics and Evolution describing a new species of deep-sea squat lobster from cold seeps.

  • Rodríguez-Flores, P. C., Ambler, J. W., & Nizinski, M. S. (2024). Integrative taxonomy reveals a new species of deep-sea squat lobster (Galatheoidea, Munidopsidae) from cold seeps in the Gulf of Mexico. Zoosystematics and Evolution, 100(4), 1243-1257.

June 2024  Andrea Quattrini presents a seminar about rebuilding the coral tree of life in the NOAA 'Omics Seminar Series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qJwizF58ag

April 1, 2024. Congratulations to Claudia Vaga and Andrea Quattrini for their new paper out in Zoologica Scripta. Their work increases our knowledge of deep sea scleractinian cup corals, some of which can be found in habitats impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and are of interest to MDBC restoration activities.

  • Vaga et al. 2024. Untangling deep-sea corals systematics: Description of a new family, Stephanocyathidae (Anthozoa, Scleractinia), through a genomic approach. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/zsc.12657

February 14, 2024. Our NMNH-MDBC Education and Outreach team participated in a Valentines Day educational program that highlighted different symbiotic relationships in MDBCs. The program was featured in Smithsonian Magazine.

February 1, 2024. Claudia Vaga, Andrea Quattrini, and MDBC collaborator Cheryl Morrison (USGS) are co-authors on a new paper out in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution describing the population structure, genetic diversity, and phylogenetics of the scleractinian coral genus Madrepora. Species of Madrepora occur in habitats impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and this taxon is of interest to MDBC projects.

  • Capel et al. 2024. How long have we been mistaken? Multi-tools shedding light into the systematics of the widespread deep-water genus Madrepora Linnaeus, 1758 (Scleractinia). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107994 

December 2023. Our NMNH-MDBC educator Jamie Thompson has published an article overviewing the MDBC portfolio on the NMNH Ocean Hall Portal site: Deep Gulf Restoration After a Monumental Oil Spill

July 31, 2023. Learn about MDBC expeditions via an interactive ArcGIS StoryMap: StoryMap: Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities Expeditions

February 22, 2023. See some statistics summarizing the 2022 MDBC cruise season: Deepwater Horizon 2022 Gulf of Mexico Deep Sea Cruise Season, By the Numbers 

Partners

To learn more about the MDBC portfolio projects from our NOAA partners, please visit:

NOAA Fisheries: Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities Restoration

NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science: Gulf of Mexico Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities Restoration