ow. fern boy

Karl Hagemeister (German, 1848-1933), Bewegte See [Stormy sea], 1915. Oil on canvas, 140 x 165.5cm.

A baby Flamboyant Cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi) hatchling only a few seconds old, after it had hatched from its egg sac. (via)

Sea butterflies, a group of swimming sea snails, are canaries in the coal mine for the ocean.

Delicately beautiful and highly sensitive to the changing oceans, these tiny creatures—most smaller than a pinky nail!—present a unique way to gauge climate. One-quarter of the carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere dissolves into the ocean, which makes the water more acidic and makes it more difficult for these animals to build their own shells.

Scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History are studying them to learn how ocean acidification will affect a wide array of ocean animals. Read our article at Smithsonian Magazine about the animals and scientists studying them—with stunning photos.

All photos © Karen Osborn (Smithsonian biologist)

Spotted Garden Eel  (Heteroconger hassi)

is a small species of conger eel found in shallowish Indo-Pacific waters. This species is widely known for its burrows, as large groups of up to a few thousand eels will burrow into the bottom of a reef or coral cluster and sit in their small sandy homes with their mouths pointed towards the current in the hopes of catching any zooplankton that may swim by.

Phylogeny

Animalia-Chordata-Actinopterygii-Anguilliformes-Congridae-Heteroconger-hassi

Source, Source

Promachoteuthis sulcus is a deep-sea squid known from a single specimen, collected in 2007 at 2000 meters (6,600 feet). Despite this, its photograph has spread far and wide because it looks like it has a pair of human teeth! The scientists describe these “teeth” as “dentures,” but they are actually lips that surround its sharp beak (not seen in photo).

Photograph by Richard Young.

(via: Promachoteuthis sulcus)

A Deep-Sea Chimaera

Chimaeras are most closely related to sharks, although their evolutionary lineage branched off from sharks nearly 400 million years ago, and they have remained an isolated group ever since. Like sharks, chimaeras are cartilaginous and have no real bones. The lateral lines running across this chimaera are mechano-receptors that detect pressure waves (just like ears). The dotted-looking lines on the frontal portion of the face (near the mouth) are ampullae de lorenzini and they detect perturbations in electrical fields generated by living organisms.

This image was captured at the ‘Zona Senja’ site near Sulawesi, Indonesia, on August 2, 2010.

Image courtesy of NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, INDEX-SATAL 2010.

Neopetrolisthes maculatus is a species of porcelain crab (family Porcellanidae) from the Indo-Pacific region. It is a small, colourful crustacean with a porcelain-like shell. This porcelain crab is usually found within the stinging tentacles of a number of sea anemone species

(via: Wikipedia)         (photos: T - Steve Childs, B - Nick Hobgood)

Crinoid Shrimp (Periclimenes sp.)

Crinoid shrimps come in an enormous variety of colours and patterns which always match the feather stars which they live on. It seems that the shrimp are able to adjust its colours over time to suit its host

Klaus Stiefel on Flickr

Banded Piglet Squid

(Helicocranchia pfefferi)

the banded piglet squid is a small 4in long species of squid of the family Cranchiidae (glass squids) found in the North Atlantic. This species of squid is unique in that they have a pair of small tentacles above their eyes which expose their beak, these tentacles and their exposed mouth give them the animal their name as apparently people think the squid looks like a piglet (although i don’t see it).

Phylogeny

Animalia-Mollusca-Cephalopoda-Teuthida-Cranchiidae-Helicocranchia-pfefferi

Source,Source

Lia Melia

mad-as-a-marine-biologist: Baby Frogfish (family Antennariidae), Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia

(photo by Paul Rudder)

llbwwb:  Razorbill (Alca torda)   -  (photo by Rainbirder)

Garden Eel  My face in the morning

Photographer: Rivo Malonda

Source: Underwater Macro Photographers

by Ingo Arndt via NG Stock Photography

Slipper Lobster

This specimen of Crenarctus bicuspidatus was collected from shallow waters off Taiwan in 2010. The crustacean, first discovered in 1905, inhabits oceans from South Africa all the way to Japan. It is often found in shallow waters and prefers sandy seabeds littered with broken shells and dead coral.

(Credit: WoRMS Photo Gallery / Chan, Tin-Yam, 2010)

(via: OurAmazingPlanet)

Stalked Jellyfish

The stalked jellyfish Haliclystus californiensis lives between depths of 33 feet (10 meters) and 99 feet (30 m) below the waters off the California coast. Unlike other members of its genus, the bright red sea creature has horseshoe-shaped anchors and prominent glandular pads on its outer tentacles.

(Credit: WoRMS Photo Gallery / Collins, Allen G., 2012)

(via: OurAmazingPlanet)

‘Oldest living thing on earth’ discovered

Ancient patches of a giant seagrass in the Mediterranean Sea are now considered the oldest living organism on Earth after scientists dated them as up to 200,000 years old.

by Jonathan Pearlman

Australian scientists sequenced the DNA of samples of the giant seagrass, Posidonia oceanic, from 40 underwater meadows in an area spanning more than 2,000 miles, from Spain to Cyprus.

The analysis, published in the journal PLos ONE, found the seagrass was between 12,000 and 200,000 years old and was most likely to be at least 100,000 years old. This is far older than the current known oldest species, a Tasmanian plant that is believed to be 43,000 years old.

Prof Carlos Duarte, from the University of Western Australia, said the seagrass has been able to reach such old age because it can reproduce asexually and generate clones of itself. Organisms that can only reproduce sexually are inevitably lost at each generation, he added…

(read more: Telegraph UK)                            (photo: Getty Images)

NO, FUCK YOU ZINC. AUGH.