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Jan 6 2011 - 3:09pm
Arctic cod have a special protein that keeps their blood from freezing in ice-cold Arctic waters.
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Dec 5 2012 - 12:15pm
It may be the last place you’d expect to find corals—up to 6,000 m (20,000 ft) below the ocean’s surface, where the water is icy cold and the light dim or absent. Yet believe it or not, lush coral gardens thrive here. In fact, scientists have discovered nearly as many species of deep-sea...
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Sep 21 2011 - 1:23pm
At the Poles, Life Thrives
Located beside the Shores and Shallows gallery (which highlights different kinds of coastal ecosystems around the world), the Poles area will take you to the ends of the earth and empower you with a broad understanding of life and physical conditions at both poles.
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May 29 2012 - 11:42am
Great White Sharks are stealthy hunters and the secret is in their skin. Shark skin is covered by tiny flat V-shaped scales, called dermal denticals, that are more like teeth than fish scales. These denticles decrease drag and turbulence, allowing the shark to swim faster and more quietly. Olympian...
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Jan 26 2010 - 11:46am
Rivulus fish live in bodies of water that sometimes become contaminated with hydrogen sulfide—an extremely toxic compound that smells like rotten eggs. When this happens, the adaptable fish wiggle into damp places like logs. More about mangroves can be found in our Mangroves featured story.
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Jul 19 2012 - 9:14am
A huge colony of brittlestars (likely Ophiacantha rosea) covers the peak of a seamount in the deep ocean. What’s the attraction? Food! Their arms reach out for tiny food particles carried by the swift Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
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Jan 22 2013 - 10:53am
This tiny, shrimplike creature is no more than 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) long, but it’s as ferocious as a shark. Its giant eyes spot prey. Huge claws grab the prey, and a tiny mouth rips it to shreds. The prey never sees what’s coming, because Phronima’s transparent body blends into the surrounding...
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Jan 14 2013 - 11:22am
Polar bears have evolved to survive in the Arctic with large, oar-like front paws for better swimming, as well as insulating blubber, and two layers of fur for the frigid temperatures. They rely on pack ice, traveling thousands of miles in a year looking for food (mostly ringed and bearded seals,...
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Sep 20 2011 - 3:42pm
Earth’s first animals had soft bodies. This illustration shows a community of soft-bodied Ediacaran (edi-A-karan) animals. Some species resemble living ocean creatures. Others are unlike any known organisms and cannot be classified. Scientists have found fossils of these fauna in sedimentary rocks...
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Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am
This jelly’s red color provides camouflage in the deep ocean. Red light rarely reaches those depths, and most deep-sea animals have lost the ability to see red. The long, complex tentacles of this unidentified comb jelly (Order Cydippia) have sticky cells that can snag prey, and then retract.
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Jan 6 2011 - 3:36pm
Several species of amphipod like this one, Gammarus wilkitzkii, live permanently within Arctic sea ice. These animals are endemic, meaning they only live here. They acclimate to a wide range of salt levels in the water using a physiological response called osmoregulation.
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Mar 8 2013 - 10:57am
These beautiful mandarinfish (Synchiropus splendidus) are covered in bright blue, red, yellow and orange waves. What they lack, however, are traditional fish scales. They live in western Pacific tropical coral reef ecosystems and instead of your typical fish scales they are covered in a smelly,...
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Dec 7 2009 - 11:04pm
This crab (Neolithodes sp.) was collected on a NOAA/MAR-ECO cruise to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the summer of 2009. Its red color provides camouflage and protection from predators. Red wavelengths are strongly absorbed by water, so red light does not normally reach the midwater ocean zone. Most...
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Mar 12 2013 - 7:35am
Stinging cells (nematocysts) line the tentacles of this moon jelly (Aurelia aurita). Upon contact with prey or a predator, a venom-laden harpoon shoots out to stun or kill. Read more about jellyfish anatomy in our jellyfish and comb jellies overview page.
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May 23 2011 - 3:50pm
Adaptation is the key word if you are looking to survive in a tide pool, a space that some scientists describe as the most competitive real estate in the ocean.
Tide pools are exposed to the water's ebb and flow, and plants and animals must adapt to survive wave turbulence, desiccation stress,...
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Dec 12 2012 - 10:33am
This beautiful jewel squid (Histioteuthis bonnellii) can be found swimming above the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, at depths of 500-2,000 meters (1,640-6,562 feet). The “jewels” covering the body are bioluminescent photophores. But these squids can't bargain for their lives with those jewels: they have been...
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