The role of “Big Science” in the discovery of new marine species: Experience from the International Indian Ocean Expedition of the 1960s

The first International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-1), conducted between 1959 and 1965, ranks among the most extensive multinational oceanographic initiatives focused on the Indian Ocean. The expedition aimed to enhance foundational knowledge of the basin’s physics, chemistry, biology, and meteorology, and to gain insights into the region’s fish and shellfish resources for human consumption. Australia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Portugal, South Africa, Thailand, the USSR, the United Kingdom, and the United States contributed ships to the IIOE-1. The United States played a significant role in the IIOE-1, primarily through its Program in Biology. This program included research cruises and two land-based camps. Various sampling devices were deployed throughout the water column down to the seafloor. Plankton samples were forwarded to the Indian Ocean Biological Centre in India, while larger specimens were dispatched to the Smithsonian Oceanographic Sorting Center. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the 399 species identified from specimens collected by the U.S. Program in Biology during the IIOE-1; the associated metadatabase of the species named is available for additional analysis by others. Three hundred and ninety-nine species were described based on specimens collected by the U.S. Program in Biology of the first International Indian Ocean Expedition. Half of the species described (for which a collection year could be determined) were described within 10 years of collection of the holotypes. Ten authors described about 55% of the 399 species. About three-quarters of the described species were collected by research cruises and one-quarter from land-based camps. Cruises that did benthic sampling were more productive, in terms of holotypes per cruise day, than cruises focused on sampling the water column.