Italian researchers found 114 marine animal species existing in harmony on ancient remains of a sunken ship from Carthage.  According to a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, researchers found the species coexisting in “a complex community” on the ram of a Carthaginian galley that sank in battle off of the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea in the Mediterranean more than 2,000 years ago. 

The ram offered scientists a “unique window” into how marine life colonize empty sites and eventually build stable and diverse communities and was the first time researchers studied marine life on an ancient shipwreck. Out of the 114 species found living around and in the ram, scientists found 33 gastropod species, 25 bivalves, 33 species of polychaete worms and 23 species of bryozoans, which had created something akin to coral reef.