A group of snorkelling grandmothers is helping scientists better understand marine ecology by photographing venomous sea snakes in waters off the city of Noumea, New Caledonia.
Read moreFish that are able to survive and adjust to warming waters may pass heat-tolerant genes not just onto their children, but their grandchildren too.
Read moreA new study has revealed how common shore crabs can navigate their way around a complex maze and can even remember the route in order to find food.
Read moreA new octocoral species was recently discovered in a biodiversity hotspot and World Heritage Site in Pacific Panama. It inhabits an unexplored and understudied marine ecosystem, under increasing need for protection: the mesophotic coral communities.
Read moreFirst the sea stars wasted to nothing. Then purple urchins took over, eating and eating until the bull kelp forests were gone. The red abalone starved. Their fishery closed. Red sea urchins starved. Their fishery collapsed. And the ocean kept warming. This ecological horror story movie took place between 2013-2017, with lasting impacts. This study chronicles the catastrophic shift in 2014 from a robust bull kelp forest to a barren of purple sea urchins.
Read moreA new study has found that European glass eels use their magnetic sense to 'imprint' a memory of the direction of water currents in the estuary where they become juveniles.
Read moreA new technique for analysing satellite images may help scientists detect and count stranded whales from space. Researchers tested a new detection method using Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite images of the biggest mass stranding of baleen whales yet recorded. It is hoped that in the future the technique will lead to real-time information as stranding events happen.
Read moreA team of engineers and marine biologists built a better suction cup inspired by the mechanism that allows the clingfish to adhere to both smooth and rough surfaces. Researchers reverse engineered the clingfish's suction disk and developed devices that cling well to wet and dry objects both in an out of water. The devices can hold up to hundreds of times their own weight.
Read moreThreats to coral reefs are everywhere — rising water temperatures, ocean acidification, coral bleaching, fishing and other human activities. But new research shows that 3-D printed coral can provide a structural starter kit for reef organisms and can become part of the landscape as fish and coral build their homes around the artificial coral.
Read moreArapaima gigas is a big fish in a bigger river full of piranhas, but that doesn't mean it's an easy meal. It's evolved armor-like scales that deform, but don't tear or crack, when a piranha — which has one of the animal kingdom's most powerful bites — attacks. Researchers describe the unique properties of the Amazonian Arapaima skin and its potential for human-made materials.
Read more