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Science with the face of a woman at the service of the country: Under the surface of our coasts, key ecological and evolutionary processes occur for the functioning of the planet, which still remain to be discovered. Two scientists from the Andrés Bello University (UNAB) lead initiatives that unravel some of the mysteries that lie under the sea, which represent advances in water decontamination, as well as knowledge of marine biodiversity and conservation of species. Dr. María Cecilia Pardo, researcher at the UNAB Faculty of Life Sciences, is the one who leads one of these initiatives. Together with his team they have discovered a new species of deep-sea octopus, until now unknown to science. Their research was published in the prestigious international journal Journal of Marine Science and Engineering.

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On the other hand, the director of the Laboratory of Ecology and Molecular Biology in Algae at UNAB, Dr. Loretto Contreras, works on the use of biochar obtained from brown algae to remove arsenic from water. This project already has a patent application before the National Institute of Intellectual Property (Inapi). An inkless octopus that resists extreme pressures After two decades of research in the depths of the Southeast Pacific, Dr. María Cecilia Pardo, an academic in the Department of Ecology and Biodiversity of the UNAB Faculty of Life Sciences, has discovered a species of octopus that lives between 436 and 2,454 meters deep off the Chilean coast. Graneledone sellanesi is a medium-sized cephalopod that has evolved to survive where light does not reach. It lacks an ink sac and has unique physical adaptations to withstand extreme pressures.

 

“The research began in early 2000 motivated by interest in knowing the diversity of octopuses in the southeastern Pacific,” says Dr. Pardo, who remembers that the first signs appeared during oceanographic cruises and deep-sea fishing operations for cod, where specimens of this octopus were accidentally captured as accompanying fauna. Observing that these animals did not match any existing taxonomic description, an exhaustive morphological and genetic analysis was initiated.

 

To confirm that they were dealing with something never seen before, Pardo and UNAB One Health Institute researcher Christian Ibáñez used integrative taxonomy, combining detailed morphological analyzes—such as counting warts on the body and suction cups on the arms—along with genetic tools. This work also required the comparison of samples with museum collections in Chile, Germany, the United States and New Zealand, which allowed the uniqueness of the species to be conclusively validated.