Ocean Life & Ecosystems

From the tiny to the titanic, from the familiar to the undiscovered, the ocean offers a stunning diversity of marine life and nearly every kind of habitat imaginable. Dive in and explore them here.

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Foraminifera

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X-Rays of Fish Reveal Diversity

Scientists in the Division of Fishes at the Smithsonian's National Museum of...
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How Coastal Seagrass Feeds the Deep

It is a well-known fact that for animals living in the deep sea, food can be...
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12,000 Miles to Go: Migrating with Shearwaters

Oceanic birds are a rare treat to see because these birds are not casual...

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Watching for Fish in the Puffin's Beak

Nov 18, 2013 - 3:30PM
In recent years, I have taken to watching flying fish along the Maine coast. Not the usual flying fish that skim over tropical seas, but fish dangling from the beaks of flying puffins. Puffins are famous for loading their...

Ice-Loving Seals and the Loss of Sea Ice

Sep 24, 2013 - 4:31PM
The threat that climate change poses to polar bears has received a lot of...

Portraits of Planet Ocean – Behind The P...

Sep 6, 2013 - 3:54PM
Editor's Note: These images and more can be seen at Smithsonian's National...

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Deep-sea Corals

It may be the last place you’d expect to find corals—up to 6,000 m (20,000 ft) below the ocean’s surface, where the water is...

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