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BLOG POST So You Think You're Smarter Than a Cephalopod? The blanket octopus can rip a poisonous tentacle from a Portuguese man-o-war and wield it like a sword to ward off enemies as it soars through the ocean trailing its webbed cloak behind it....MORE STORIES


	AUDIO MORE AUDIO Sea Slugs: One Species at a Time Come one, come all! See the amazing, the astonishing, half-animal, half-plant! J...
	BLOG POST MORE STORIES Surveying Life On Sea Turtles “It is strange to think of a sea turtle as an ecosystem,” says Amanda Feuerstein...
	PHOTO MORE PHOTOS Amphipod Under Arctic Sea Ice Several species of amphipod like this one, Gammarus wilkitzkii, live permanently...

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					Elevator Rudists May 1, 2013 - 9:48AMThese "elevator" rudists, an ancient bivalve, used one long heavy valve to anchor themselves in the sediment. They used their tentacles (shown here in pink) to filter food from the sea water. Discover more about the ancient...

Ancient Entoproct Community

Jan 18, 2013 - 10:28AM

For a long time, scientists thought that some small tentacled fossils were...

Early Whale with Webbed Feet

Aug 21, 2012 - 8:51AM

This early whale was well suited to life at sea. But it also lived on land....

SPOTLIGHT


Bioluminescent Animals Photo Gallery Bioluminescence is one of the more captivating adaptations that have evolved in marine animals. It's the ability of...

Menopausal Moms: A Mammal Mystery May 6 2011 - 3:07pm In honor of Mother's Day, the Citizens of the Sea blog salutes ocean-going mothers everywhere. Especially a 60 year-old albatross named Wisdom. She holds the seabird records for both oldest bird and oldest new mother. No stranger to motherhood, it is estimated that she has already birthed 30-35...	Sea Slugs: One Species at a Time Jul 11 2011 - 2:12pm Come one, come all! See the amazing, the astonishing, half-animal, half-plant! Journey to Tampa Bay, Florida, where scientist Skip Pierce and one of his students first made a remarkable discovery twenty years ago. Meet Elysia chlorotica, a bright green, solar-powered, algae-slurping sea...
Darwin’s Evolutionary Tree Diagram Jul 2 2010 - 12:33pm This 1837 sketch is Charles Darwin’s first diagram of an evolutionary tree. It appears in his First Notebook on Transmutation of Species (1837).	Evolution of Whales Animation Sep 30 2009 - 11:21am Whales have existed for million of years. Watch this animation, from the Sant Ocean Hall, to see how they evolved from land-dwellers to the animals we know today. Discover more about whale evolution in our Ocean Over Time interactive. Note: this video contains no audio.
The Whale Family Tree Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am This family tree shows how the ancestors of whales moved gradually from land to sea. Early whales took advantage of abundant marine resources. Baleen whales evolved later as polar climates cooled and marine resources became more concentrated, making filter feeding effective. Learn more at "Did...	Video of the Palauan primitive cave eel (Protanguilla palau) Aug 16 2011 - 2:31pm A video of the Palauan primitive cave eel (Protanguilla palau) swimming in the Pacific off the Republic of Palau. Jiro Sakaue, a Japanese research diver, first discovered the new genus and species in a Palauan reef cave in 2009.
Amphipod Under Arctic Sea Ice Jan 6 2011 - 3:36pm Several species of amphipod like this one, Gammarus wilkitzkii, live permanently within Arctic sea ice. These animals are endemic, meaning they only live here. They acclimate to a wide range of salt levels in the water using a physiological response called osmoregulation.	Deep Ocean Diversity Dec 8 2009 - 4:08pm See some of the remarkable adaptations that deep-sea animals have evolved. Learn more about their habitat and how marine scientists research it in our Deep Ocean Exploration section.
Biomimicry Shark Denticles May 29 2012 - 11:42am Great White Sharks are stealthy hunters and the secret is in their skin. Shark skin is covered by tiny flat V-shaped scales, called dermal denticals, that are more like teeth than fish scales. These denticles decrease drag and turbulence, allowing the shark to swim faster and more quietly. Olympian...	Dispatches from the Field: Treacherous stream crossings and a new fossil find May 11 2012 - 9:58am Editor's note: Read Nick's first blog post about "toothed" baleen whales to see what their team is excavating on Vancouver Island.
Did Whale Evolution Go Backwards? Sep 24 2010 - 12:25pm Whales swim, but their ancestors walked. Whales are mammals (like us) whose ancestors lived on land. Life probably began in the ocean and then evolved to colonize the land. Yet the whale’s ancestors gradually moved from land to sea, adapting to their circumstances and surroundings. The ocean...	Elevator Rudists May 1 2013 - 9:48am These "elevator" rudists, an ancient bivalve, used one long heavy valve to anchor themselves in the sediment. They used their tentacles (shown here in pink) to filter food from the sea water. Discover more about the ancient ocean at our feature Ocean Over Time.
Cockatoo Squid Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am This transparent cockatoo squid (Leachia sp.), also known as a glass squid, lives in the depths of the ocean and has many adaptations to help it survive there. It retains ammonia solutions inside its body that give it a balloon-like shape and help it float. It has large eyes and pigment-filled...	Dr. Stephen Cairns Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am Dr. Stephen Cairns is a research zoologist and chair of the Department of Invertebrate Zoology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. His research focuses on the diversity, distribution, and evolution of deep-water corals—both fossil and living. Learn all about deep sea corals in...
So You Think You're Smarter Than a Cephalopod? May 5 2011 - 4:41pm The blanket octopus can rip a poisonous tentacle from a Portuguese man-o-war and wield it like a sword to ward off enemies as it soars through the ocean trailing its webbed cloak behind it.	Top Predators Timeline Sep 24 2010 - 6:00pm What makes a top predator? Razor-sharp teeth? Speed? Strength? Size? Who is the most fearsome hunter? It depends on where and when you look.