The rare specimens of liparids were collected in the early 1980s in traps set in the Mariana Archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean, deposited with NOAA's Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center in Hawaii and did not get examined until recently, when they were noticed during the center's move to a new location.

Oregon State alumnus Bruce Mundy, retired from the National Marine Fisheries Service, learned of the liparid specimens from Robert Moffitt, the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center biologist who collected them.

Mundy and fellow OSU alum David Stein of the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences describe the new species, Paraliparis echongpachot, P. kadadakaleguak and P. marianae, in a paper published today in Ichthyological Research.

"David Stein came to Hawaii to assist with the description of another snailfish species from the depths of the Mariana Trench and visited PIFSC to examine the snailfish specimens," Mundy said. "That's when he found that three distinct, undescribed species were among them."

The specimens have been deposited in the Oregon State University Ichthyology Collection, curated by Brian Sidlauskas and Peter Konstantinidis in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences. OSU was selected as the archive for the specimens because the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center does not maintain permanent biological collections.