(Credit: Joseph DelPreto/MIT CSAIL) Like a miniaturized Moby Dick, the pure-white fish wiggles slowly over the reef, ducking under corals and ascending, then descending again, up and down and all around. Its insides, though, are not flesh, but electronics. And its flexible tail flicking back and forth is not made of muscle and scales, [...]
(Credit: E/V Nautilus) Determining whether new immunotherapies are successfully fighting cancer cells can be difficult and expensive. Creatures from the depths of the ocean might be able to change that. (From Oceans Deeply/ By Matthew O. Berger) -- Those were the findings of a recent research project, and they underscore what a number of scientists [...]
(Credit: Christopher Bird) Light emitted by a new species of lanternshark, Etmopterus lailae, is camouflage and helps them to hunt, communicate and find partners. But how does it work? (From The Guardian/ By Lauren Smith) -- Earlier this year a new species of deep water shark, Etmopterus lailae, was discovered in waters surrounding the [...]
(Credit: NOAA) Parents' choices about when to breed have lifelong consequences for offspring. For the sixbar wrasse, the flexibility of babies to delay their critical swim towards adulthood frees adults to spawn more often, say ecologists in a new research report in the Ecological Society of America's journal Ecology. (From Science Daily) -- A [...]
Under-ice seafloor community in O'brien Bay showing a diverse community of marine invertebrates. (Credit: Jonny Stark/Australian Antarctic Division) In a world-first, a research team of Australian and international scientists has used data collected by satellites and an ocean model to explain and predict biodiversity on the Antarctic seafloor. (From EurekAlert.org) -- The researchers [...]
Giant clam (Credit: Neo Mei Lin) An international team of marine researchers led by Dr Neo Mei Lin and Associate Professor Peter Todd from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has recently published a comprehensive study on the status of giant clams worldwide. Between 2014 to 2016, the scientists involved in this [...]
(Credit: Pexels) Amazing diversity hides beneath the surface of the ocean where tiny microbes work busily; transforming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into oxygen, converting sunlight into energy, and breaking down nitrogen gas to serve as food. University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science researcher Victoria Coles and her team have developed [...]
(Credit: Projeto TAMAR) A University of Central Florida biologist whose groundbreaking work tracking the movements of sea turtle yearlings in the North Atlantic Ocean attracted international attention has completed a similar study in the South Atlantic with surprising results. (From Phys.org) -- South Atlantic sea turtles do not passively ride prevailing currents as historically assumed, [...]
(Click to enlarge) (Credit: University of East Anglia) Squid, sole, dogfish, herring and cod all feed on baby jellyfish – according to new research from the University of East Anglia and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas). The moon jellyfish is commonly found around the coastlines of Britain. They’re [...]
Sea snakes are an evolutionary success story. With about 70 species, they're the most diverse reptile group in the ocean, outnumbering sea turtle species 10-to-1. They sport a range of physical adaptations for life at sea, including a flattened oar-like tail for paddling and the abilities to smell underwater, hold their breath for hours and go for months without a drink. And although they're not powerful swimmers, they have spread throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans, ranging from Japan to New Zealand and from South Africa to Central America.
Methane-eating bacteria anchor the food chains and ecosystem occupying the otherworldly flooded caves of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Scientists recently completed a comprehensive survey of the unique ecosystem, the most in-depth yet. They published their findings this week in the journal Nature Communications.
The study, published in PLOS Computational Biology, developed a new method combining behavioral analyses with a computer model to map the chain of direct interactions in a school of fish. The international research team, that includes the University of Bristol, found individual fish pay attention to its neighbours when the school moves together.