Scientist's lifelong obsession with mystery of elusive 'pink zebra' seaweed
Professor Christine Maggs has spent four decades searching for a pink‑striped seaweed discovered on UK maerl beds. A recent sample collected in Cornwall was DNA‑sequenced and confirmed as a new species, now housed at the Natural History Museum. The findings will be published in the journal Phycologia, highlighting the ongoing biodiversity of maerl habitats.
- ▪The pink‑striped seaweed was first noted by Prof Maggs 40 years ago while studying maerl beds for her PhD.
- ▪A sample collected by divers in Cornwall allowed researchers to grow and DNA‑sequence the organism, confirming it as a new species.
- ▪The specimen has been added to the Natural History Museum’s collection and will be described in a forthcoming Phycologia article.
- ▪Maerl beds are calcified seaweed formations that support rich marine communities and continue to yield previously unknown species.
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| Publication time | Fri, 31 Jul 2026 23:43:10 GMT |
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Scientist's lifelong obsession with mystery of elusive 'pink zebra' seaweedPublished15 minutes agoThe Great Barrier Reef might be the world's most famous underwater ecosystem, but hidden in UK waters lies an ancient marine world you may not have heard of.Known as maerl beds, these carpets of coral-like seaweed create some of the richest habitats in the sea.And 40 years ago, while studying one such bed for her PhD, Prof Christine Maggs found a fragment of pink-striped seaweed living on maerl she had never seen before.The discovery would become a lifelong obsession and a decades-long scientific puzzle.Image source, Francis BunkerImage caption, New ceramium is an entirely new species unknown to scienceMaerl beds may closely resemble corals but they are in fact thousands of pieces of…
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