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A screenshot from video showing three orcas swimming.

video

Killer Whale: Orca

Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are master hunters, using speed, camouflage, and a...

Wed, 09/30/2009 - 11:20

A photo of a squid using bioluminescence to hide in the deep sea.

overview

Bioluminescence

You may have seen the sparkle of fireflies on a summer’s night. The fireflies...

April 2018

Two nurse sharks hover over a baited cage

Lesson Plan

Light at the Bottom of the Deep Dark Ocean

Students will be able to list the various adaptations that enable deep-sea fishes...

Mon, 11/30/2009 - 18:46

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Two nurse sharks hover over a baited cage

Lesson Plan

Now You See Me, Now You Don’t

Students will be able to explain light in terms of electromagnetic waves and...

Mon, 11/30/2009 - 18:35

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A blue-ringed octopus

How Octopuses and Squids Change Color

Squids, octopuses, and cuttlefishes are among the few animals in the world that can...

October 2013

This shrimp is colored to fit in - probably why they are common members of the seaweed community.

slideshow

A World Adrift: Life in the Sargassum Slideshow

Smithsonian Marine Science Network Postdoctoral Fellow, Seabird McKeon, returns...

Fri, 05/18/2012 - 16:43

This day octopus (Octopus cyanea) has shaped itself like seagrass or some coral so hide from predators or stalk prey.

Photo

Camouflaged Octopus Blends In

Octopuses can change the texture and color of their skin to blend in with their...

Relatively slow moving, juvenile plane-head filefish Monacanthus hispidus (Monacanthidae) travel along with the algae. They pick off and eat small animals as they move around in the rotating sargassum ball. Adult filefish only grow to be about 11

Photo

Juvenile plane-head filefish

Relatively slow moving, juvenile plane-head filefish Monacanthus...

A veined octopus sits inside a vacant bivalve shell, which it uses as a portable shelter, in the Philippines. This is one of the few examples—if not the only example—of tool use in invertebrates.

Photo

Veined Octopus at Anilao Batangas Pier, Philippines

The veined octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus), also known as the coconut octopus,...

It's a pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti), found in Indonesia's biodiverse Coral Triangle and one of the smallest seahorse species in the world! They can change colors like a chameleon to blend into their environment. This helps to protect them from p

Photo

Can You Spot the Seahorse?

It's a pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti), found in Indonesia's biodiverse...

The frogfish uses camouflage to hide from predators.

Photo

Three-spot Frogfish

The three-spot frogfish (Lophiocharon trisignatus), seen here off the coast of...

The dwarf lantern shark sits in a human hand.

Photo

Dwarf Lantern Shark

The smallest shark, a dwarf lantern shark (Etmopterus perryi) is smaller than...