Holes in shells reveal predators grew but prey didn’t
Drill holes left in fossil shells by snails and slugs suggest that even though marine predators have gotten bigger and more powerful over time, they still choose to pick on small prey. The percent of...
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DNA from skin, scales, and poop reveals ocean life
Scientists are using DNA left in the waste of ocean animals to detect which creatures live in water than can be more than 7,200 feet deep. Analyzing DNA in skin, scales, and feces animals leave behind...
View ArticleBendy glass lets these sea sponges hang tight
Sea sponges known as Venus’ flower baskets remain fixed to the sea floor with nothing more than an array of thin, hair-like anchors that are essentially glass. A new study suggests it’s the internal...
View ArticleHow ‘weirdo’ hatchetfish hide in light
New research shows how hatchetfish use light to hide. Contrary to previous ideas, they don’t do so by acting as mirrors. The midwater region is the largest habitat by volume in the world, making up 99...
View Article‘Competing’ ocean bacteria may collaborate instead
Two of the most abundant types of microorganism in the oceans—phototrophic and heterotrophic bacteria—collaborate rather than compete, new research suggests. The finding contradicts the popular...
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Earthquakes can cause distant undersea landslides months later
Large earthquakes can cause underwater landslides thousands of miles away, weeks or months after the quake occurs, new research suggests. Researchers analyzing data from ocean bottom seismometers off...
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Enzyme speeds how ocean locks away carbon
Scientists have found that a common enzyme can speed up—by 500 times—the rate-limiting part of the chemical reaction that helps the Earth lock away, or sequester, carbon dioxide in the ocean. “While...
View ArticleOil can lead fish to make bad decisions
Oil can negatively affect the higher-order thinking of coral reef fish, making them more vulnerable to predators and less able to find a livable habitat, new research suggests. “…the fish exposed to...
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Scary prehistoric worm used head spines to grab prey
Researchers have identified a small marine predator that once patrolled the ocean floor and grabbed its prey with 50 spines deployed from its head as a brand new genus and species. They identified the...
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East Coast ‘hot spots’ speed up sea level rise
New research suggests that sea level rise “hot spots”—bursts of accelerated sea rise that last three to five years—occur along the East Coast of the United States because of two naturally occurring...
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Ship exhaust may make lightning at sea more intense
Exhaust from ships on the open ocean may be contributing to more intense lightning and thunderstorms above the world’s most trafficked shipping lanes. A new study mapping lightning around the globe...
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Parrotfish ‘farm’ by rotating through algae patches
Steephead parrotfish (Chlorurus microrhinos) in the central Pacific essentially “farm” their food by strategically rotating through algae patches, waiting for each patch to regrow before dining on it...
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Fishing has caused numbers of old fish to drop
In dozens of fish populations around the world, the number of old fish has gone down, mainly due to the pressure of fishing, new research suggests. Like old-growth trees in a forest, old fish in the...
View ArticleIron ‘pulses’ in the Pacific may have slowed climate change
Researchers have found at least eight occurrences of iron penetrating the Pacific Ocean, with each occurrence likely associated with global climate change over thousands of years. …some researchers...
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Giant tsunami reshaped California coastline
New evidence suggests a gigantic tsunami hit the California coast 900 years ago, removing three to five times more sand than any El Niño storm in history. The researchers also estimate how far inland...
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Penguins may not be the best way to track ocean health
Scientists may have to find a method for measuring the ocean’s health that doesn’t involve penguins, new research indicates. Researchers analyzing all known data on Adélie penguin populations over the...
View ArticleTeam recreates scarce ‘sea creature’ drug in lab
Supplies of a promising drug for cancer and HIV—provided by a feathery creature of the sea—is about half what it was in the 1990s. Now, scientists have come up with a synthetic alternative. As reported...
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Corals eat plastic for the taste, not by accident
Corals eat plastic because they are drawn to its taste, new research indicates. Scientists have long known that marine animals mistakenly eat plastic debris because the tiny bits of floating plastic...
View ArticleNoisy humans rob spinner dolphins of their rest
Conservationists have long feared that interactions caused by dolphin-encounter boat tours and other human activities disturb spinner dolphins when they normally rest. A 2011 tsunami in Hawaii...
View ArticlePredicting human survival on Earth requires oceans
When scientists consider “planetary boundaries,” which describe the conditions within which humanity can continue to thrive, they tend to disregard oceans. And that’s a big problem, a new paper argues....
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