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Invertebrates

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PHOTO Rapa Whelk Rapa whelks, native to Asia, have invaded the Chesapeake Bay and are raising concerns about economic and ecological impacts to the Bay region due to their shellfish diet. Scientists believe...MORE PHOTOS


	PHOTO MORE PHOTOS Invertebrates from the Gulf of Mexico The Smithsonian's Department of Invertebrate Zoology has a collection of over 57...
	BLOG POST MORE STORIES So You Think You're Smarter Than a Cephalopod? The blanket octopus can rip a poisonous tentacle from a Portuguese man-o-war and...
	IMAGE GALLERY MORE GALLERIES Bioluminescent Animals Photo Gallery Bioluminescence is one of the more captivating adaptations that have evolved in...

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					Searching for Crustaceans in the Deep Sea May 16, 2013 - 9:04AMIn 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...

Colorful Caribbean Crustaceans

May 15, 2013 - 8:12AM

Discovering new species is an exciting quest, right? Well, some parts are—...

Zombie Worms Eating Whale Bone

May 13, 2013 - 9:23AM

Zombie worms (Osedax roseus) eat away at the bones of a dead whale that has...

SPOTLIGHT


A World Adrift: Life in the Sargassum The open ocean is surprisingly barren to the naked eye. Every now and again you will encounter a school of fish and their...

Dead Man’s Fingers Nov 2 2012 - 11:06am Dead man’s fingers (Alcyonium digitatum) are soft corals named for their appendage-like appearance when thrown ashore by storms. The finger-like clumps of coral polyps come in various shades of pink, orange, white, grey, or yellow and are found along the northern Atlantic coasts of Europe and North...	Close-up of Giant Squid’s Radula Sep 12 2012 - 10:45am This scanning electron micrograph magnifies the tiny teeth that cover the surface of the giant squid’s tongue-like organ, or radula. Seven rows of sharp teeth help direct tiny pieces of food down the squid’s esophagus (only three are shown here). Because the esophagus passes through the brain...
Giant Squid on Baited Camera Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am This is the first photograph of a live giant squid (Architeuthis) in its natural habitat. It was taken in 2004 by two Japanese researchers who had suspended a long line from their research vessel with a camera and bait attached. More about the giant squid can be found in our Giant Squid section.	Baby Sea Turtles in Jalisco, Mexico Nov 8 2011 - 5:39pm These baby olive ridleys (Lepidochelys olivacea) will eventually provide a home to crustaceans, mollusks, and other epibionts. That's according to a survey of epibionts living on mature, nesting olive ridleys and green sea turtles in Jalisco, Mexico. The related study was published in the October...
An Invasive Brittlestar 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...	Horseshoe Crab from Thailand Oct 27 2010 - 5:01pm With seven pairs of legs, nine eyes, a tail with light-sensing organs and shells the shape of flying saucers, horseshoe crabs, like this species from Thailand (Tachypleus tridentatus) look like aliens from the deep. They are not actually related to crabs, but to arachnids (spiders, scorpians and...
Grimpoteuthis, The Dumbo Octopus Nov 16 2012 - 11:39am The dumbo octopus (Grimpoteuthis) is a deep sea animal that lives on the ocean floor at extreme depths of 9,800 to 13,000 feet. They are small animals, around 8 inches tall, and have a pair of fins located on their mantle—their namesake—and webbing between their arms. Grimpoteuthis swim often hover...	Fragile Comb Jelly Jan 6 2011 - 12:33pm Found in the icy waters of the Arctic, Comb Jellies, or ctenophores like this one, of the Aulacoctena genus, are poorly known animals. With extremely fragile bodies, they are difficult to capture intact.
Deep-Sea Bivalves Jan 6 2011 - 2:46pm Bivalves brought up in a box corer from the deep Arctic seafloor.	Baleen: From Whales to People Dec 8 2009 - 11:51am For being so big, right whales eat very small food, which they catch using baleen. Baleen is the series of fringed plates hanging in right whales' mouths that are used to strain seawater for food. Until the early 1900's, right whales were heavily hunted primarily for their fatty blubber, which...
Deep-Sea Amphipod Jan 6 2011 - 2:14pm Lanceola clausi, the bull-dog amphipod, another rare deep-water species captured below 1000 meters (3281 feet) with the multinet. View the “Under Arctic Ice” photo essay to learn more.	Jewel Squid Dec 12 2012 - 10:33am This beautiful jewel squid (Histioteuthis bonnellii) can be found swimming above the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, at depths of 500-2,000 meters (1,640-6,562 feet). The “jewels” covering the body are bioluminescent photophores. But these squids can't bargain for their lives with those jewels: they have been...
Harp Sponge Dec 18 2012 - 8:47am This newly-discovered carnivorous sponge (Chondrocladia lyra) was found using robotic submersibles operated by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute 10,000 feet below the surface in dark waters. It traps small crustacean prey with barbed hooks found along its branch-like limbs....	Blind Lobster Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am This new species of lobster is blind—an adaptation to deep-sea life—and has very bizarre claws, or chelipeds. It was discovered about 300 meters (984 feet) deep in the Phillipine Sea by a Census of Marine Life expedition. Not only was this a new species, but it was placed in an entirely new genus...
Crittercam Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am Smithsonian squid expert Dr. Clyde Roper collaborated with National Geographic to attach this Crittercam to the head of a sperm whale, hoping to get footage of the whale’s favorite prey—giant squid. At left is the Crittercam’s inventor, Greg Marshall, of National Geographic. At right is British...	Glowing Sucker Octopus Dec 7 2009 - 11:09pm This red octopod (Stauroteuthis syrtensis) shines in a novel way. Suckers stretching in a single row down each arm flash on and off. The glowing-sucker octopod drifts through deep waters off the eastern United States—down to 2,500 meters (8,200 feet)—and grows up to 50 cm (18 inches) long.