Over 50 new species discovered in Turkish waters

İZMİR

Some 56 new aquatic species have been discovered in Turkey’s Mediterranean, Aegean and Marmara seas, scientific works at Ege University Faculty of Aquaculture have shown.

“The biodiversity in Turkish seas is immense, but this abundance did not decently come to light. We worked really well in Aegean, Mediterranean and Marmara [seas]. If researches increase in the Black Sea, the diversity of species will increase as well,” Ertan Dağlı, a member of the faculty, told Anadolu Agency reporters.

Samples of the newly discovered species are currently kept in the faculty’s museum, Dağlı conveyed.

While examining data from the last 14 years, scientists have come across one fish, insect and shellfish, six coral, 20 arthropod and 27 annelid species.

All of the newly discovered species have entered world literature as Turkish scientists named them.

One of the species was named “Prionospio Anatolica,” an attribute to the rich biodiversity in Anatolian lands.