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Oct 27 2010 - 1:56pm
Claws, spines, spikes, tentacles, and fangs. Aliens, monsters, and ghostly apparitions glowing in the night. Marine life forms have some of the best looks for Halloween—no costumes needed. From freaky fish lurking beneath the surface to creepy crawlies of the deep, meet some of the sea’s strangest...
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Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am
A male mudflat fiddler crab (Uca rapax) waves its huge claw to impress females and threaten male competitors. More about the animals and plants living in mangrove ecosystems can be found in the Mangroves section.
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May 30 2012 - 12:38pm
The open ocean is surprisingly barren to the naked eye. Every now and again you will encounter a school of fish and their attendant predators, but most of the life that you find is gathered around some sort of sheltering structure like a coral reef.
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May 18 2012 - 5:17pm
The sargassum is coated with encrusting organisms, such as bryozoans and hydroids, that use it as a perch to filter feed in the oceanic waters, as well as crustaceans such as the swimming crab Portunus sayi (Portunidae).
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Jul 5 2012 - 9:46am
When they get larger, Portunus sayi are formidable predators- quick to consume any smaller animal that comes within reach. Fish, other crustaceans, and even smaller members of their own species are not safe from this hungry sargassum swimming crab.
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Sep 27 2011 - 1:09pm
Regardless of what continent you live on, the waters that surround it are home to marine invaders. The ocean is teeming with plants and animals willing and able to move beyond their native habitats. Often all they need is a ride. Enter: humans. Some invaders hitchhike on ship hulls or inside...
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Nov 4 2010 - 1:41pm
The Galápagos Islands site in Ecuador was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978.
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Aug 8 2012 - 12:06pm
The European green crab (Carcinus maenas) has spread far beyond its native continent, to waters off North and South America, Asia and Australia. It's a voracious eater and poses a nuisance to shellfish farmers. Invasive species have various means of reaching new habitats.
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Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am
This halimeda crab’s disguise did not fool researchers in Moorea where it was collected. These crabs cover themselves with the green algae of halimeda for camouflage.
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Jun 7 2011 - 9:42am
A robotic arm on the Johnson-Sea-Link submersible retrieves Galatheid crabs for research. Growing in the background is a species of the deep-sea coral Lophelia. Explore more in the multimedia feature "Coral Gardens of the Deep Sea."
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May 16 2013 - 9:04am
In this video Smithsonian research zoologist Dr. Martha Nizinski takes viewers with her as she searches for crustaceans in the deep sea. She's particularly interested in finding squat lobsters, which despite their name, are actually crabs. On this dive in the waters off Curaçao, she discovers some...
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Dec 23 2010 - 4:16pm
“The largest land migration of any animal on Earth, as many as 120 million crabs carpet the island in red as they move from the rain forest to the coast.” -- Nature's Best photographer, Stephen Belcher.
See more beautiful ocean photos in our slideshow of winners from the 2010 Nature's Best Ocean...
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Dec 7 2009 - 11:04pm
This crab (Neolithodes sp.) was collected on a NOAA/MAR-ECO cruise to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the summer of 2009. Its red color provides camouflage and protection from predators. Red wavelengths are strongly absorbed by water, so red light does not normally reach the midwater ocean zone. Most...
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Jul 14 2011 - 12:30pm
Last week, Smithsonian research zoologists Dr. Jerry Harasewych and Dr. Martha Nizinski were in Curaçao looking for deep-sea marine gastropods and decapod crustaceans, respectively.
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Jan 26 2010 - 11:46am
A male mudflat fiddler crab (Uca rapax) waves its huge claw to impress females and threaten male competitors. More about mangrove swamps and forests can be found in our Mangroves featured story.
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Sep 11 2012 - 4:13pm
Over the last few days, a video of hermit crabs stampeding across the rocky shores of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands has taken the internet by storm. Where are the hermit crabs going, and why?
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