This purple marine creature, 33 cm high, was discovered at a depth of 1,549 meters in the Caroline Seamount of the western Pacific Ocean in 2019. It was named Victorgorgiaiocasicaby the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Oceanology. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Five new species of marine creatures were named by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Oceanology in Qingdao, Shandong province, on Saturday.

The naming ceremony coincided with the 70th anniversary of the institute.

All the species were found at ocean depths of around 1,000 meters in the western Pacific Ocean by researchers from the institute.

From January 2009 to March this year, the institute has listed two families, two subfamilies, 17 novel genera and 276 novel species.

The institute was founded in 1950 as the first ocean research institute after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.