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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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Feb 11 2013 - 1:53pm
It is a well-known fact that for animals living in the deep sea, food can be scarce. The food that is around usually rains down from above as dead animals and organic particles from plankton living near the ocean’s surface. Occasionally, a bonus in the form of a good-sized dead fish, a porpoise, or...
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May 11 2011 - 12:13pm
Sea stars are important members of marine ecosystems, especially in the tropics. We may think of tropical coral reefs as being home mainly to fish and corals, but in fact these habitats are home to a huge diversity of ecologically important invertebrates.
Sometimes, human influences can throw off...
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Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am
Census of Marine Life researchers discovered this unusual transparent sea cucumber (Enypniastes sp.) in the Gulf of Mexico. It creeps forward on its tentacles, sweeping detritus-rich sediment into its mouth. So far Census researchers have discovered more than 5,000 new species. They expect to find...
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Dec 4 2009 - 3:35pm
A large white coral (Corallium sp.) grows on the Balanus Seamount, part of the New England Seamount chain. Hanging on to the coral are stalkless crinoids and orange brittlestars (Opiacantha sp.) To the left are two vase sponges. This photo was taken on May 22, 2004, at a depth of 1,745 meters (5,...
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Jan 26 2010 - 11:46am
As it clings to a red sea fan, a feather star (Cenometra bella) gently waves its slender arms—filtering bits of food from the water. Also known as sea lilies, feather stars are related to sea stars. Learn more about life on coral reefs in the Coral Reefs section.
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Aug 29 2012 - 5:30pm
This bright purple sea star is a new species found by the Census of Coral Reef Ecosystems, a project of the Census of Marine Life. This particular specimen was seen on the reefs of the French Frigate Shoals during the day, and is about a foot long.
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Jun 8 2010 - 10:59pm
A tiny larval (baby) starfish. The immature forms of invertebrates and other animals may be even more vulnerable to threats such as oil spills than adult forms.
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Jun 7 2011 - 11:59am
A diversity of deep-sea corals—including primnoid coral (Narella sp.), black coral (Trissopathes pseudtristicha), and feather stars (Florometra serratissima)—flourish 2,669 m (8,757 ft) deep on the pristine Davidson Seamount off the coast of California. Explore more in the multimedia...
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Sep 7 2012 - 8:54am
These brittlestars (Ophiothela mirabilis) are not where they belong. These animals, usually found in the Pacific Ocean, were first spotted in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil in 2000. And since then, they've been seen crawling up and down the eastern coast of South America, all the way...
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Jun 21 2011 - 2:52pm
"Harlequin shrimp normally live in pairs and their main diet is starfish... It takes a good eye and patience to find this beautiful shrimp, which looks like candy.” -- Nature's Best photographer, Vincenzo Apuzzo
See a slideshow of other photos from the 2011 Nature's Best Photography Ocean...
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May 21 2012 - 11:16am
Fitting nine of anything on two fingers is impressive. These mollusks and echinoderms are a teeny-tiny sample of the ocean's biodiversity. The Census of Marine Life estimates that there are at least one million species of plants and animals in the sea -- and most have not been...
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Oct 26 2012 - 10:58am
Simon Coppard, a post-doctoral research fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and an Encyclopedia of Life Rubenstein Fellow specializing in echinoids often uncovers new species during his research.
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Oct 9 2012 - 9:17am
In the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill, what is the effect of oil on invertebrates like jellyfish, clams, crabs, sea stars, and plankton? The scope of the damage is more easily observed among birds and large animals, but Dr. Chris Mah, an invertebrate zoologist at Smithsonian's National Museum...
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Oct 3 2010 - 7:25pm
A crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) on a reef in the Marianas Islands. An “outbreak” of these coral-eating starfish can decimate a reef.
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Mar 17 2013 - 8:11am
This sea potato (Echinocardium cordatum) looks similar to its root vegetable namesake, but it's a sea urchin! The spines on this urchin are more hair-like than the spikes seen on some more commonly known urchins, and they lay flat across the urchin's body. They can be found buried in the...
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Dec 4 2009 - 3:45pm
Thousands of seamounts—most of them undersea volcanoes—tower above the muddy seafloor. They provide something hard to come by in the deep ocean: a solid surface to cling to. Corals, sponges, and other marine animals attach themselves in dense colonies to seamount slopes. As the animals grow and...
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Aug 14 2012 - 10:04am
Sea cucumbers might have a cucumber shape, but are definitely animal, not vegetable… or fruit. They belong to the Phylum Echinodermata, which also includes sea urchins, sand dollars, sea stars and brittle stars.
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Dec 4 2009 - 3:37pm
A bright orange sea star (Novodinia antillensis) clings to a large white soft coral (Paragorgia sp.). This photo was taken on the Manning Seamount at a depth of 1,350 meters (4,429 feet) by the remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) Hercules. To learn more about life in the deep ocean, visit the Deep...
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Sep 28 2012 - 3:03pm
Sea stars (Odontaster validus) and sea urchins (Sterechinus neumayeri) spread over an algae-covered seafloor off the coast of Antarctica.
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Oct 3 2010 - 7:14pm
What is this bizarre, spiky-looking organism? Hint: it can be found in tropical areas of the Pacific and Indian ocean basins crawling slowly over coral reefs and devouring any living coral polyps that it encounters. “Outbreaks” of this organism can devastate entire reef systems. Click here to...
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Dec 4 2009 - 3:31pm
Colorful corals and brittlestars inhabit the Manning Seamount in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of New England. Here you can see golden-colored coral (Enallopsamia rostrata), pinkish-brown coral (Solenosmilia variabilis), pink soft coral (Candidella imbricate), and brittlestars (Ophiacantha sp...
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Aug 16 2011 - 1:05pm
The ocean is home to a phenomenal diversity of marine organisms. They have evolved to inhabit warm waters near the equator and the icy waters of the Earth’s poles. Marine life takes advantage of the enormous volume the ocean comprises: from diatoms living near the sunny surface, to octopods...
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Jun 6 2010 - 12:16pm
The Smithsonian's Department of Invertebrate Zoology has a collection of over 57,000 specimens from over 5,700 sites in the Gulf of Mexico, which are now catalogued on Google Earth. Below is a tiny sample.
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