This first large systematic collection of large seabed invertebrates from Australia's deep western continental margin (~100 to 1,100 m depth between North West Cape and Albany), revealed an undiscovered high species richness and novelty in several taxa.

Within the total collection, 1,979 species make up the major taxa that have comprehensive and consistent species-level discrimination across all samples: Demospongiae, corals (Octocorallia and Antipatharia), Mollusca, Echinodermata, Decapoda, Pycnogonida and Acscidiacea. Richness of other taxa has not yet been determined.

59% of the major taxa were estimated to be new or un-named species. Even amongst the decapods, which are relatively well known, 33% of the 524 species collected are believed to be new to science.

Shown on this page: less than 10% of species from the collection of major taxa (see list above).