Albeit the big seafaring nations enlarged the postwar marine research, especially the United States strongly reengaged, other expeditions of two smaller countries were vitally important. The Swedish "Albatross" expedition of 1947/48 crossed eighteen times the equator and covered 45,000 nautical miles (83,000 km). Over 200 cores, fastened on a perpendicular, were dragged 1.5 km over the seabed. The second Danish "Galathea" expedition from 1950 to 1951 headed by Anton Bruun concentrated on studies of the life in the deep sea and succeeded in catching live animals from the bottom of the Philippine Trench at a depth of 10,190 m (33,430 ft), proving that life can exist in the deepest parts of the ocean. Another significant find of the expedition was the discovery of a "living fossil", the monoplacophoran "Neopilina galathea", dredged from the bottom of the Mexican Gulf.