Adaptation is the key word if you are looking to survive in a tide pool, a space that some scientists describe as the most competitive real estate in the ocean.

Tide pools are exposed to the water's ebb and flow, and plants and animals must adapt to survive wave turbulence, desiccation stress, predation, and competition for space and food. Not enough real estate on the rocks? Barnacles, sponges, bryozoan, and other animals live on top of whatever or whomever they can latch onto.

To learn more, see this National Geographic article, in which writer Mel White discovers everything from the gum-like peanut worm to the sea star Pisaster ochraceus, predator of the pools (pictured here).