Sea Creatures

Jeanne Villepreux-Power described how the Paper Nautilus grew its own shell

A 19th Century Shipwreck Might Be Why This Famous Female Naturalist Faded to Obscurity

Jeanne Villepreux-Power invented the aquarium and studied cephalopods, but today few recognize her name

Jellyfish Lake, Palau

Watch One Snorkeler Swim Through a Lake of Pulsating Jellyfish

Jellyfish Lake is a popular tourist destination

If a lobster’s home territory is written into its genetic code, it just may be possible to distinguish a legally captured lobster from one with a shady background—maybe even after it’s made it to the dinner plate.

To Make Lobster Fisheries More Sustainable, Scientists Attempt to Decode Crustacean DNA

As the battle escalates to combat illegal fishing, Smithsonian scientists offer up a possible genetic tool

Healthy ochre sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus)

This Beer Was Brewed to Save Sea Stars

A new ale sends some proceeds to research on sea star wasting syndrome

An ocean sunfish hangs out with pilotfishes

Goofy Looking Ocean Sunfish Are Actually Active Swimmers and Predators

The idea that these giant fish are lazy is just wrong

A 1911 illustration of a vampire squid

Poop Eating Vampire Squids Aren't Actually Squids at All

The strange-looking animals have a very different reproductive strategy than other cephalopods

The oceans are teeming with tetrapods—“four-legged” birds, reptiles, mammals and amphibians—that have repeatedly transitioned from the land to the sea, adapting their legs into fins.

Take a Deep Dive Into The Reasons Land Animals Moved to the Seas

Synthesizing decades of discoveries, scientists have revealed links between changing environments and animal movements

Hargrove greets Takara at SeaWorld of Texas in 2012.

Why Killer Whales Belong in the Ocean, Not SeaWorld

A former orca trainer makes the case against the theme park

Loggerhead sea turtle surfing the magnetic field

Earth’s Magnetic Field Draws Sea Turtles to Their Nests

Loggerhead turtles remember the magnetic fingerprint of the beach where they were born

The world's six known punked out snail species, which have mohawk-like spikes, acidic-dyed psychedelic colors and hardcore shells that are falling apart.

New Deep-Sea Snails Are Nature’s Own Punk Rockers

The spikes on one hardcore species inspired scientists to name it after Joe Strummer of the Clash, who was also an ardent environmentalist

The rim of white light emanating from the disco clam's lips in this image seems to be its best defense against a predator.

Disco Clams Are Flashy

Their orange lips twinkle in a particularly funky display

An endangered green sea turtle in Hawaii that has contracted fibropapillomatosis.

Pollution From Hawaii Is Giving Sea Turtles Gross, Deadly Tumors

Nitrogen runoff gets into the turtles' food and causes tumors on their faces, flippers and organs

The vast unknown deep sea floor

Why We Must Explore the Sea

Robert Ballard, the famed explorer who discovered the wreck of the Titanic, ponders what else is on the ocean floor

The "skylight" appears as a light pink splotch atop this leatherback sea turtle's head.

Leatherback Sea Turtles Can Measure Sunlight Through Their Skulls

The anatomical skylight allows the turtles to synch up with the seasons

Rise of the Sea Urchin

In the icy waters off Norway, one intrepid Scot dives deep to satisfy the latest fjord-to-table craze at Europe’s finest restaurants

Oil floats on the surface of Gulf waters in June 2010. Is it still there today?

Breaking Down the Myths and Misconceptions About the Gulf Oil Spill

Does oil stick around in the ecosystem indefinitely? What was the deal with the deformed fish? Can anything bad that happens in the Gulf be blamed on oil?

A baby loggerhead sea turtle with a solar-powered tag attached to its shell swims in the Gulf Stream just after release off the southeast Florida coast in 2009. NMSF permit 1551 applies to all images featured in this article.

Where Do Newly Hatched Baby Sea Turtles Go?

Special satellite tags that track baby sea turtles show that some ride the North Atlantic Gyre while others float in the Sargasso Sea

Architeuthis dux, better known as the giant squid, is likely the inspiration for the legendary kraken.

The Giant Squid: Dragon of the Deep

After over 150 years since it was first sighted by the HMS Daedalus, the mysterious creature still eludes scientists

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Photo Contest Finalist: Horseshoe Crabs Go Wild

The Australian Dragonfish

Weird Creatures From the Deep

A massive census of the oceans has turned up a trove of strange marine wildlife, from jellyfish to octopuses to anemones

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