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 Scientist Martha Nizinski holds a specimen of a fan sponge (Phakellia sp.) collected at a deep-sea coral study site off the coast of South Carolina.    
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Fan Sponge

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“The largest land migration of any animal on Earth, as many as 120 million crabs carpet the island in red as they move from the rain forest to the coast.” -- Nature's Best photographer, Stephen Belcher.Equipment Used to Capture the Shot: Canon EOS-1D
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Red Crab Migration, Christmas Island, Indian Ocean

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This magnified photo provides a close-up look at copepods—tiny crustaceans that right whales feed on.
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Copepods: Right Whale Food

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Smithsonian Zoologist Dr. Clyde Roper in front of the museum's stored cephalopod collection.
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Smithsonian Cephalopod Collection

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What is coral? The answer is coral is an animal. This cutaway diagram of a coral polyp shows the location of its photosynthetic algae, or zooxanthellae, which coral needs to survive.
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What Is Coral? A Coral Polyp and Zooxanthellae

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Male fiddler crabs, like this one collected on Moorea, wave their enlarged claw as way of signaling to other crabs, especially during mating season.
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Fiddler Crab

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Giant clams are one of the many wonders of coral reefs. They can grow up to five feet wide, weigh over 400 pounds, and live for 100 years!
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Restocking Giant Clams

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A longshoreman standing in front of a large pile of oyster shells on waterfront pier in Atlantic City in 1910.
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Counting Mountains of Oysters

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Hermit crabs, like this one collected in Moorea, usually protect their soft, vulnerable abdomens from predators by reusing empty snail shells. This specimen shows the crab without its customary borrowed shelter.
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Hermit Crab Without a Shell

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red worms penetrate holes in bone
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Zombie Worms Crave Bone

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A photo of an oyster cage, out of the water, covered in sea squirts.
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Alaska Vulnerable to Invasive Species from Warmer Waters

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This orange boring sponge (Cliona varians) overgrows several coral species at Panama's Smithsonian Tropical Studies Institute.
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Ocean Acidification Excites Boring Sponges

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