Scientists first discovered this tiny copepod, Ceratonotus steiningeri, in 2006, 17,700 feet deep in the Angola Basin, a portion of the south-central Atlantic Ocean. Then they found it again, in the southeastern Atlantic, and then again, 8,000 miles away in the central Pacific. Now, they're trying to figure out how such a tiny thing (half a millimeter long) could be so widespread, and yet have eluded detection for so long. Copepods are tiny crustaceans that form an important part of the marine food web: In other words, a lot of other creatures eat them.
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