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A woman standing in front of a barge

Article

Mary Rice: A Force of Nature

Dr. Mary Esther Rice spent her career pushing back against obstacles and refusing...

August 2021

The Komodo National Park site in Indonesia was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1991. The site hosts "Komodo dragons" (Varanus komodoensis), a unique species that exists nowhere else in the world and is of great interest to scientists studying evolu

Article

Tunicates—Not So Spineless Invertebrates

There are thousands of marine invertebrate animals in the ocean, from small to...

June 2018

Small red hyperiid.

slideshow

The Hyper Eyes of Hyperiids: How Some Shrimp-Like Creatures See Light in the Deep Sea

Hyperiid amphipods are small crustaceans related to sand fleas and distantly...

Tue, 08/19/2014 - 10:47

Photograph of the underside of a gelatinous octopus with a bright yellow bioluminescent ring around her mouth.

slideshow

Bioluminescent Animals Photo Gallery

Bioluminescence is one of the more captivating adaptations that have evolved in...

Thu, 08/18/2011 - 16:24

This new species of lobster (Dinochelus ausubeli) is blind and has bizarre claws. It was discovered about 300 meters (984 feet) deep in the Philippine Sea by a Census of Marine Life expedition.

slideshow

Deep Ocean Diversity Slideshow

Deep sea animals have to live in a very cold, dark, and high-pressure environment...

Tue, 12/08/2009 - 15:08

This male dancing fiddler crab (Uca terpsichores) has built a sand “hood” at the entrance to his burrow, which he hopes will attract females to his humble abode—as if that big beautiful claw of his weren't enough!

Personal Perspectives

The Design of a Beautiful Weapon

This summer, many of you have likely enjoyed feasting on crabs, be they blue,...

September 2013

A screenshot from the video showing a fiddler crab with a large claw.

video

Claws Out: Fiddler Crabs Do Battle

Male fiddler crabs each have a single super-sized claw that they use as a weapon to...

Tue, 09/03/2013 - 16:18

Rough periwinkles sit on a bed of barnacles.

Personal Perspectives

Spirals in Time: A Walk at the Seashore

When I set out to write a book about mollusks (called Spirals in Time), I wasn't...

July 2015

Two baby olive ridley sea turtles.

Article

Surveying Life On Sea Turtles

“It is strange to think of a sea turtle as an ecosystem,” says Amanda...

November 2011

Like other cephalopods, the common cuttlefish (Sepia officials Linnaeus, 1758) possesses serious brain power.

Article

So You Think You're Smarter Than a Cephalopod?

The blanket octopus can rip a poisonous tentacle from a Portuguese man-o-war and...

May 2011

A bright-green sea slug with a black background.

audio

Sea Slugs: One Species at a Time

Come one, come all! See the amazing, the astonishing, half-animal, half-plant!...

Mon, 07/11/2011 - 14:12

Photograph of a transparent polka-dotted squid in the dark ocean.

Photo

Cockatoo Squid

This transparent cockatoo squid (Leachia sp.), also known as a glass squid, lives...