The love lives of pygmy seahorses

Meet siphonophores, breathtaking jellyfish-like organisms

Siphonophores are colonial jelly-like creatures made up of specialized segments that work together as one. They're fairly unknown despite being a significant sea predator. Sink into their strange beauty with this video.

What we can learn from how penguins express affection

Pebbling, a term used to describe small acts of love within a relationship, comes from penguins. Male gentoo penguins, a species of penguin that lives on sub-Antarctic islands, present pebbles to their potential mates later used to build nests. This small but helpful act is something we humans can learn from. Think of the “pebbles” you can share with loved ones on a daily basis.

Across the animal kingdom, parenting can include adults carrying their young, providing their bodies for sustenance, searching for food and shelter for their children, and separating siblings who may eat one another.

The 10 most amazing deep sea creatures

In this video, researchers from the world-renowned Monterey Bay Aquarium discuss the most fascinating deep sea creatures, and how they developed some of their strangest features.

River dolphins manhandle an unlucky anaconda

The natural world around us is endlessly inspiring, and fascinating, and often very odd too: like when researchers snapped a photo of Bolivian river dolphins swimming around with a Beni anaconda snake in their mouths, for example.

Underwater nighttime photos capture the ocean's diversity

Self-taught photographer Steven Kovacs explores Palm Beach's ocean after sunset, capturing tiny sea creatures in deep waters. Over eight years, he's dived into Florida's eastern coast, drifting from 0 to 100 feet, photographing rarely seen larval fish. Lacking formal marine biology training, Kovacs collaborates globally to identify species like cusk eels and the female blanket octopus, known for its revealing membrane. Check out his photos here.

Take an interactive dive and see the animals that populate the oceans, from coral near the surface to shrimp-like organisms near the seafloor.

Sea stars are invertebrates—they lack a backbone—and while most exhibit pentametric radial symmetry due to having five arms radiating from a central disk, some can possess more than 40.

Korea's "real-life mermaids"

Explore the incredible world of Haenyeo, Korea's female freedivers who dive to depths of up to 60 feet without oxygen tanks. These amazing women have been practicing this ancient tradition for centuries, and yet, their story remains largely unknown.

View a gallery of animals found on abyssal plains, hydrothermal vents, seamounts, and other deep-sea habitats.

A look at how fish less than two inches long climb up 50-foot waterfalls

Shellears use tiny hooks on their front pectoral fins to grip rock like Velcro and take many pauses to recover energy between bursts of movement. Their pectoral girdle—an arch of bone—supports the muscle system needed for the roughly ten-hour climb.

Coral reefs are built by thousands of coral polyps—tiny animals whose mouths both consume food and expel waste.

Coral polyps reproduce via broadcast spawning, where entire reefs simultaneously release reproductive cells for about one hour, once a year.

What a tiny marine worm can tell us about our brains

Meet the amphioxus, a small eel-like animal that has a lot to teach us about brain evolution. The genetic roots of our brains can be seen in these unusual creatures. This three-minute educational video focuses on the evolutionary history of the human brain through these odd little critters with a 500-million-year-old history.

Dolphins have doulas too?

For the first time in over a decade, a dolphin gave birth at Brookfield Zoo, and she didn’t do it alone. Right beside her was another dolphin, acting as a doula. Why do dolphins support each other this way? The answer reveals something incredible about how animals care for one another.

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

Fruit fly sperm are gigantic—about 40 times larger than human sperm, according to scientific research published in June 2026.

The hormone that spreads love and helps fish share fear

Scientists consider emotions like fear and empathy to be among the oldest evolutionary behaviors observed in mammals. Yet to date, how these reactions are processed in the brain, regardless of species, is not well understood. A new study reveals how the chemical oxytocin—known as the "love hormone" in humans—helps let fish know when their friends are in danger.

Understand the complex, biological journey of pregnancy with this science explainer.

View an illustrative journey of sperm cells navigating toward fertilization

In this series of comic-style panels, a "fellowship" of sperm cells travels through fictionalized versions of reproductive anatomy on their way to an egg cell. Each panel includes informative commentary on each step of the adventure, with research insights provided by a reproductive biologist, a biomedical scientist, and an andrologist.

Inside the pigeon race with $50K at stake

More than 1,000 pigeons are released each year at the American Racing Pigeon Union convention as owners wait to see which of the birds arrives home first. This essay unwraps the niche activity's paradoxical love for the birds despite its at times utilitarian treatment of them.

The deep-sea fangtooth has the largest teeth of any marine species relative to body size

From transparent fish to the heaviest worms on the planet, these seven creepy creatures lurk in the deep sea. Learn all about them and the unique traits that help them survive and hunt.

Watch a salamander grow from fertilization to hatching

New microscopy techniques have allowed scientists to image the development of animal embryos with unprecedented detail. This six-minute time-lapse reveals the development of a salamander from initial fertilization to hatching from an egg.

Studying the circadian clock of a tiny swimming polar creature may help forecast polar ecosystem health

A 2025 study found that Antarctic krill, a food chain staple in the Southern Ocean, have an internal biological clock that helps regulate its swimming patterns and helps the tiny shrimp-like animals adapt to daily and seasonal environmental changes. Better understanding of how the clock and light cues interact may help scientists understand how well the species will respond to pronounced climate change in the polar region.

Research has found that when their symbiotic algae are not producing oxygen via photosynthesis, corals twirl hairlike structures to circulate water and draw oxygen into their outer tissues.

The purpose of narwhal tusks has mystified researchers for centuries

Nicknamed the "unicorn of the sea," narwhals have no teeth aside from two canines that grow directly forward as tusks. For roughly 85% of females, they stay embedded in the bone. For males, they grow into large, spirally tusks that are full of nerve endings and blood vessels. Scientists today believe that tusks likely formed for sexual selection purposes and eventually evolved to assist in other processes, such as hunting.

How Seabiscuit's DNA made him a winner

Seabiscuit's sudden success in the sport has been framed as a classic against-the-odds sports story. One Binghamton University molecular physiologist wanted to go a bit deeper, though, to see how much genetics played a role in the horse's legendary career. Using the horse's silvered hooves, his research team discovered that Seabiscuit's genotype was typically associated with late bloomers, a finding confirmed by the horse's track record.

Watch this octopus win every single Escape Room challenge

Octopuses are famously intelligent, solitary creatures covered in hundreds of chemical-sensing suckers. They're also pretty fascinating pets, and even enjoy playing. The crew at OctoLab put one of its more playful mollusks into four different Escape Room-like cages to see how long it would take for it to escape. Watch this video to see the brilliant, if a bit unsettling, methods the animal uses.

Divers capture a blanket octopus unveiling her billowing membrane

In a short clip captured during a blackwater night dive in the Lembeh Strait, a blanket octopus unfolds and displays a colorful web multiple times its original size. The aquatic animal’s iridescent body and tentacles glow against the nighttime...

Over 1 million fish, marine mammals, and invertebrate species depend on coral reefs for habitats, camouflage, and food.

About 76% of global coral species are found in the Coral Triangle—a region spanning the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste.

Whale falls—dead whales that have fallen to the ocean's floor—can provide enough food to spawn a local ecosystem of deep-sea organisms that lasts for decades.

An interactive of the deep sea

The hippocampus, a structure in the brain, plays a crucial role in memory formation

The seahorse-shaped structure transfers short-term memories to long-term storage during sleep. It is located in the temporal lobes, above each ear, and aids in spatial navigation and remembering directions.

The concept of keystone species—organisms that have disproportionately large impacts on their ecosystems—was discovered through studies of purple sea stars in Pacific tidepools.

Researches have found that various monkeys have pet-like relationships with other species.

To prevent floating away from others while sleeping, sea otters may wrap themselves in kelp or hold paws, using physical contact to form groups known as 'rafts.'

Only about 0.0001% of sperm, on average, successfully reach the uterine cavity

We've evolved to make pregnancy a complex and difficult process. From the initial development of the blastocyst, to the energy and nutrients needed to grow a new human, our bodies are both fighting and supporting fetal development.

The cells of spotted salamander embryos and early-stage larvae harbor algae that support embryonic development by increasing oxygen levels and removing waste.

What animals live in the ocean?

The oceans host an incredible diversity of fascinating species. Oceana's Marine Life Encyclopedia beautifully presents facts and photos of ocean animals from Atlantic Cod to Zebra Sharks.

Deep water corals—located throughout the world's ocean basins at depths beyond 200 meters (660 feet)—slowly build small coral gardens in the dark with the help of underwater worms.

As part of the up to 15 pounds of seafood they consume daily, sea otters eat urchins that feed on kelp forests—sources of shelter and food to over 800 species—thereby making the marine mammal a keystone species.

A history of belly buttons, from dinosaurs to modern dogs

Could dinosaurs have had belly buttons, just like you and me? Some researchers believe they've found evidence the ancient reptiles had the cute scar, a common feature among placental mammals (but which is also found in many more kinds of animals). Dive into their peculiar findings with this fascinating video.

Grieving primate mothers will carry dead infant for long after death—and others will comfort her

An examination of infant corpse carrying practices among non-human primate mothers found that 40 species of primate mothers will carry around their dead infant for days, weeks, or even months. In some cases, a grieving primate's group members would provide grieving support—hugging or staying close to mothers who experienced a loss.

In 1842, a 'mermaid' from Fiji was put on display at a museum, drawing large crowds and fooling many. It was later discovered that the creature was created by sewing the upper body of a monkey to the lower body of a fish.

The Devil's Hole pupfish can be found in only one place in the world

The critically endangered fish species can be found in only one cave in the middle of the Mojave Desert called Devil's Hole. In 2016, three men broke into the protected area to purposefully harm the fish.

Peek into the love lives of thousands of strangers whom Stanford University researchers have been tracking since 2017 on this interactive page.

Sailor tattoos represent naval milestones

Sailors often come home with mermaids or turtles adorning their bodies. But what does it mean to have permanent images of propellers on your bum, British galleons with soaring tiers of sails on your chest, or a bicep portrait of the Roman god Neptune? Those tattoos represent meaningful naval milestones.

Biofluorescent animals—those that absorb light, such as ultraviolet rays, and re-emit other types of light, such as neon green—include some flying squirrels, scorpions, sea turtles, and platypuses.

Synthetic pheromones may protect coral reefs by attracting their predators

Researchers in Australia and Japan have developed these nontoxic chemicals to attract crown-of-thorns starfish, which consume corals that make up the Great Barrier Reef. As of 2026, synthetic pheromones have been shown to be effective in lab trials, and future field trials will attempt to lure starfish into areas for mass removal.