All articles tagged with #marine life
BBC science feature reveals nine surprising shark traits—from learning and basic math to a taste for jazz, belly buttons in some species, intrauterine cannibalism, social bonds, and skin denticles that reduce drag—along with advanced electroreception and magnetoreception that aid hunting and navigation, underscoring sharks as an ancient and diverse lineage.
A photo gallery spotlights whale sharks—the world’s largest sharks and fish—docile filter feeders that grow to about 9–12 meters, feed by filtering vast volumes of water for tiny prey, migrate across oceans, and gather at key sites; the piece also notes reports of orcas hunting whale sharks in an astonishing new interaction.
Lebanese marine ecologist Mona Khalil, renowned for protecting nesting sites of endangered loggerhead and green sea turtles along Lebanon’s southern coast, died from injuries after an Israeli strike hit her Tyre-area home; her death comes amid renewed attacks in southern Lebanon.
Nine ocean crustaceans nicknamed crabs—many aren’t true crabs—showcase toxic defenses, colossal sizes, and unusual adaptations: from the toxic xanthid crabs and the car-sized Japanese spider crab to porcelain and hermit crabs, boxer crabs that wield anemone “gloves,” spiny spider crabs’ debris camouflage, devil crabs’ neurotoxins, spanner crabs’ tool-like claws, and zebra crabs that parasitize venomous urchins; the piece also explains what defines a true crab and how evolution can reshape crustaceans.
El Niño has arrived and could be among the strongest on record, likely bringing a wetter winter to California, higher coastal flooding risk, and warmer coastal waters that may draw more sharks and other marine life nearshore, while also stressing ecosystems and potentially triggering harmful algal blooms and fishing impacts.
El Niño has arrived with a 63% chance of a very strong event later this year, increasing the odds of a wetter-than-normal California winter. Past very strong El Niños brought heavy rain and damage, though rainfall isn’t guaranteed and coastal hazards like large waves and rip currents can accompany wetter years. Beyond weather, warmer Pacific waters and marine heat waves linked to El Niño may affect ocean life—with more jellyfish and sharks, kelp loss, and stress to other species—likely keeping ocean conditions unsettled into next winter.
A quahog believed to be about 507 years old—famously nicknamed Ming—outlived empires for centuries, until researchers, attempting to confirm its age by counting shell rings, opened its shell and inadvertently killed the ancient mollusk.
Cone snails are a diverse group of venomous sea snails that hunt with a harpoon-like tooth that injects neurotoxins, quickly paralyzing prey and sometimes causing death in humans; their striking shells attract collectors, but even empty shells can injure due to residual venom, so people are advised to avoid handling them and to photograph instead, with some areas even restricting shell removal.
A Hawaiian local was hailed as a hero after a Seattle tourist threw a large rock at Lani, an endangered monk seal off Lahaina. The attacker was detained and later released; the incident drew wide praise for citizen intervention and prompted a letter of recognition from a Maui official. The Hawaii Dept. of Natural Resources turned the case over to NOAA for possible federal charges under wildlife protection laws. Lani has become a symbol of Maui’s recovery following the Lahaina wildfires.
A photographer’s ongoing project magnifies individual sand grains from beaches worldwide, revealing a surprising range of shapes and colors—fragments of volcanic rock, coral, shells, and microfossils—turning beach debris into a tiny, global museum of Earth’s geology and marine life.
In a Chinese quarry, researchers uncovered the Huayuan biota dating to about 513 million years ago—over 50,000 fossils across 153 species, 91 of which are new—preserving soft tissues like guts, nerves, and eyes. This Konservat Lagerstätte shows a rapid ecological rebound within roughly 1.5 million years after the first mass extinction, with deep-water refuges and larval dispersal linking Cambrian communities across oceans to later deposits such as the Burgess Shale.
A Nature Ecology & Evolution study finds chronic ocean warming steadily reduces marine biomass, with fish declines of about 7.2% per 0.1°C per decade and up to nearly 20% in a single year; while marine heatwaves trigger temporary population booms that mask long-term losses, signaling governance and fisheries risks as warming continues.
Scientists filming off Argentina’s coast with the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s ROV SuBastian captured rare footage of Stygiomedusa gigantea, a schoolbus-sized phantom jellyfish that can reach about 33 feet in length at depths around 820 feet; the deep-sea sighting, notable for its four ribbon-like arms used to snare prey, came amid footage of potential new species and rich reef systems uncovered during the expedition.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, once seen solely as pollution, is now hosting diverse marine communities, including species typically found near coastlines, which are reproducing and thriving on plastic debris, transforming it into a new habitat in the open ocean.
The article describes the moon snail, a predatory sea snail that paralyzes and liquefies its prey, typically other mollusks, by drilling precise holes in their shells using a combination of physical grinding and chemical secretions, making it a fascinating yet deadly marine creature often found on UK beaches.