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Aug 1 2012 - 1:49pm
Light refracts off the comb-rows of the Mertensia ovum, a ctenophore, producing stripes of rainbow colors. The jelly eats copepods and small crustaceans that become stuck to its sticky tentacles.
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Sep 12 2011 - 11:55am
About 2,500 years ago cold climate brought the first Inuit peoples into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, off the coast of Eastern Canada. Early Eskimo groups, known as Groswater Dorset, occupied many sites along the Lower North Shore, and as far west as Cape Whittle. With warming climates these Eskimo...
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Sep 12 2011 - 12:24pm
For over a decade, Smithsonian Arctic Archaeologists have been investigating an early European whaling site at Hare Harbor in Quebec, Canada. The site and the artifacts that have been recovered has revealed important information about the relationships between Inuit peoples of Northern Canada and...
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Mar 26 2010 - 1:03pm
Drilling near the North Pole, Dr. Jan Backman reveals a brief moment in time when the Arctic was subtropical. More about world climate change can be found in our Climate Change featured story.
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Sep 12 2011 - 1:10pm
CREDIT: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center
Basque Whalers Background
Having already learned to hunt large whales in the Bay of Biscay in the 13th through 15th centuries, Basques began arriving in the rich whaling grounds of southern Labrador, Newfoundland, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence...
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Jul 27 2012 - 11:00am
Narwhals (Monodon monoceros) are a type of toothed whale, best known for their long unicorn-like tusk. The tusk is normally found on male narwhals and is actually a tooth.
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Sep 8 2011 - 7:27pm
This graph of the Arctic sea ice coverage shows how close the year 2011 is to reaching a record-low. The graph contains data through September 7, 2011. The National Snow and Ice Data Center, which produced the graph, says we should know within a couple weeks if the ice extent drops below the...
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Jan 4 2011 - 5:15pm
Marine biologist Mette Kaufman measures the temperature of a recently-drilled ice core. Variations in temperature at different points of the ice core provide information about the living conditions of the various organisms that live in the Arctic ice.
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Jan 7 2011 - 12:26pm
See an animation showing over time, the receding of summer sea ice in the Arctic.
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Jun 28 2011 - 2:25pm
The Encyclopedia of Life and Atlantic Public Media bring us another installment of the podcast, One Species at a Time. In this podcast, host Ari Daniel Shapiro relates two close calls with polar bears. Listen as Heather Cray recalls how, dumped by a storm on a small Arctic island,...
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Sep 8 2011 - 4:04pm
At a recent staff meeting a Smithsonian colleague mentioned that one of his pastimes this summer has been keeping tabs on the Arctic sea ice. The question that's on many Arctic-watchers' minds is whether or not the 2011 sea ice coverage will reach a new record low.
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Jan 4 2011 - 5:08pm
A dive tender monitors the line connected to ice divers studying creatures living on the underside of the Arctic Sea ice.
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Jan 14 2011 - 2:45pm
New technology is making it possible for scientists to go where they’ve never gone before, the depths of the icy Arctic Ocean. By collecting organisms and mapping the seafloor, researchers can discover the effects of climate change on this region and understand the relationship between the ice,...
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Jan 6 2011 - 2:59pm
A sea star, Hymenaster pellucidus, brought up from a benthic ROV dive. View the “Under Arctic Ice” photo essay to learn more.
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Sep 17 2012 - 9:18am
Alien-looking creatures like this deep-red jellyfish (Crossota norvegica) swim in the Arctic Sea. Learn more about Arctic sea life in our Under the Arctic Ice story, or at the home page for the Arctic Ocean Diversity project. And learn more about jellyfish!
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Aug 3 2012 - 10:51am
This copepod Calanus hyperboreus (up to 7mm in length) lives in the Arctic, usually within 500 meters of the surface. To survive the cold Arctic winters, Calanus hyperboreus builds up dense fat (lipid) supplies on its body, which makes it a preferred food of both...
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Apr 2 2013 - 9:30am
The Arctic comb jelly or sea nut (Mertensia ovum) is commonly found in the surface (top 50 meters) in cold, northern waters. Like other cydippid ctenophores, it has two tentacles fringed with smaller tentacles, which are dappled with colloblasts. Colloblasts are specialized cells that, upon contact...
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Jun 18 2012 - 9:37am
Chrysaora melanaster, one of the largest jellyfish commonly found in the Arctic, swims underneath the Arctic ice. Its tentacles can stretch to more than 3 meters long and pack a mean sting for humans.
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Jan 6 2011 - 2:23pm
Benthic scientists are interested in the creatures that live on and in the seafloor and inside the sediments. Here they haul up mud from the Arctic seafloor to examine for animals.
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Jul 27 2012 - 9:35am
Found in Arctic waters, this rare deep-water species of larvacean, Oikopleura gorskyi, eats by filtering particles from the seawater it drifts through. Larvaceans build 'houses' around themselves made of protein that helps them filter the water even better. And when the filters in its house...
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Sep 20 2011 - 12:33pm
At the ends of the Earth, life thrives despite extreme conditions. In the Arctic and Southern Oceans, organisms have evolved adaptations to cope with year-round cold and six months of darkness. But the tough critters living in these harsh climates belie the delicate balance that holds the ecosystem...
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Jan 26 2012 - 11:45am
Geologist Charles Paull (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) investigates geologic features similar to pingos (Earth covered ice mounds found in the Arctic) on the Arctic Ocean floor where methane—a powerful greenhouse gas—bubbles through sediments and forms hundreds of low hills. Read an...
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Jan 6 2011 - 3:24pm
The bowhead whale has a massive, bow-shaped skull to break through thick Arctic ice, and more blubber than any other whale.
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Sep 9 2011 - 4:26pm
Research at Hare Harbor in Quebec, Canada has revealed important clues about the connections between the Inuit peoples of Northern Canada and the Basque whalers of Spain and France.
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