"Golden Trees" From *The Lord Of The Rings* Found Off The Coast Of Costa Rica
- 26.08.2026, 16:08
Photo: ZooKeys
The unusual corals turned out to be a species previously unknown to science.
Scientists continue to explore the ocean, and this time they’ve discovered something special—a new species named after *The Lord of the Rings*.
The ocean is vast and covers most of the planet’s surface, and diving into its depths always holds surprises. During previous expeditions, scientists were lucky enough to encounter a multi-fin squid and a fish with a transparent head, but now they’ve spotted something even more unexpected—a forest of golden coral trees, according to IFLScience.
The discovery was made during dives off the coast of Costa Rica. During an expedition to study underwater mountains, scientists stumbled upon something special: corals were discovered at depths ranging from 360 to 529 meters below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. The scientists also collected coral samples to study them in more detail on the surface.
According to the study’s lead author, Odalisque Bridi of the University of Costa Rica, she and her colleagues first discovered a garden of eight-rayed corals back in 2019 — the scientists were impressed by the beauty of this landscape. Later, they were able to study the samples in greater detail and describe a new species, named Laurinque elenya, which means “golden tree” in the Elvish language described in the book J. R. R. Tolkien.
It should be noted that areas deeper than 200 meters are classified as the deep ocean—they cover about 66% of the planet’s surface and are home to some of the world’s strangest species. The area where the corals were collected was covered with ophiuroids, which made the corals look like golden trees rising from the seafloor.
The samples were collected at four different locations, both along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and southwest of Cocos Island National Park. The corals were then kept alive for further analysis, and their characteristics were studied using the samples and photographs. Three samples were also collected for genetic analysis—the results showed that they did not match any of the species known to date.
Thus, the scientists concluded that they had discovered and described a completely new species, named Laurinque elenya. The authors note that the golden, eight-rayed gardens among the ophiuroids resemble the mystical world of the elves, where they spoke Quenya, their ancient language.
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