Ancient ‘alien’ brittle stars linked to relatives across the globe by a deep-sea evolutionary superhighway

Ophiothrix Spongicola. ‘They don’t have a brain, they don’t have eyes. They just have a round disc, with a stomach and things like reproductive organs, and five arms.’ Photograph: Julian Finn/Museum Victoria

A global study of deep sea creatures called brittle stars has linked ecosystems on a “superhighway” reaching from southern Australia to the north Atlantic, uncovering close evolutionary ties across oceans.

Researchers analysed DNA from 2,699 brittle star specimens collected from all of the Earth’s oceans – from the equator to the poles, and the intertidal zone to the abyss (more than 3,500 metres deep) – and housed in 48 museums across the globe.