Marine Life

Sea spiders don't do anything by the book, and researchers have just gotten to the bottom of how they breathe.

By Jesslyn Shields & Ada Tseng

By incorporating algae into their bodies, these beautiful sea slugs become one of the few animals with the photosynthetic ability of a plant.

By Amanda Onion

Snails can't pick and choose their shells like hermit crabs can. In fact, eviction means death. So how do those hard shells form over snails?

By Mark Mancini

Crocodiles are known to eat just about anything. But sharks? A scientific team found evidence that they've chowed down on those predators too.

By Mark Mancini

Don't think you have much in common with a jellyfish? What researchers just discovered may surprise you.

By Laurie L. Dove

Researchers discover site of 15 gloomy octopus, a species that has previously been known for being reclusive.

By Michelle Konstantinovsky

The magnificent bryozoan is a colonial organism that lives in warm ponds and lakes usually east of the Mississippi River. So what's it doing in western Canada?

By Jesslyn Shields

How giant squid process visual information has long been a mystery, but a new study finds their visual processing is surprisingly uncomplicated.

By Jesslyn Shields

It's not easy being a starfish larva. Fortunately, the tiny creatures have an efficient way to get food and swim away.

By Alia Hoyt

It sounds crazy, but it's happened before, and it'll probably happen again.

By Joe McCormick

New fossil analysis details a microscopic organism from 540 million years ago that just might be a precursor to every vertebrate on the planet.

By Christopher Hassiotis

Turns out that strange sound may be minke whales getting vocal in the deep ocean.

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

Scientists have discovered for the first time that animals pollinate flowers in the ocean.

By Alia Hoyt

A Massachusetts fisherman recently caught a blue lobster, which had us wondering how rare this crustacean really is.

By Kathryn Whitbourne

Western Australia Museum is hosting a naming contest for this fascinating new nudibranch species.

By Christopher Hassiotis

Scientists until recently believed Octopuses & Co. were colorblind. If that were the case, how could the animals create such vivid physical color displays?

By Jesslyn Shields

And that price is a tapeworm infection.

By Robert Lamb

The sea butterfly snail moves in Arctic waters in the same way as fruit flies through tropical air. This case of convergent evolution was uncovered by a new study.

By Christopher Hassiotis

Whether they're busting open a child-proof medicine bottle or prying apart Mr. Potato Head, octopuses have some crazy brains. Actually, they have nine of them.

By Julia Layton

The Mariana Trench is the deepest place on Earth, and we're still in the dark about much of the life that calls it home. Here are just a few of the trench's eye-popping residents.

By Nathan Chandler, Talon Homer & Ada Tseng

Beautiful, graceful, majestic: Such highfalutin words might seem befitting of a mermaid, but a manatee? Perhaps our humble friends deserve a bit more credit. After all, they are known to stoke the imagination of a lonely seafarer or two.

By Kate Kershner

Unless you've butchered an octopus, you might assume that it's as red-blooded as you are. And you'd be wrong. Why are octopuses the original blue bloods?

By Laurie L. Dove

Do you think much about the lobster before you crack it open and dip it in butter? These humble animals have some very odd habits. For one thing, they pee out of their faces.

By Shanna Freeman

Ah, the secrets of the sea. In this gallery, we'll introduce you to some of the more enigmatic animals that drift in the ocean, swim in the sea or shoot their intestines out of their anus in saltwater. Jump in.

By Kate Kershner

The duckplatypus is an amazing animal. Learn about the duckplatypus.