A Blanket of Mucus
A Blanket of Mucus avatar

By , on March 16th, 2011 3 comments   Adaptations, Fish   , , ,  

You are fish. The guy above is your enemy, a Gnathiid isopod, a vicious parasitic relative of a roly-poly. Your defense? You cough up enough loogies to coat yourself in a protective layer of joyous mucus. Of course you are not a fish and fish don’t need to cough 1,000′s of thick loogies. If you . . . → Read More: A Blanket of Mucus

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Reconsidering the Origins of Marine Life and All Life
Reconsidering the Origins of Marine Life and All Life avatar

By , on February 15th, 2010 One comment   Biology, Cephalopods, Coral, Ecology, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Natural Disaster, New Research, New Species, Organisms, Seeps, Vent, & Whale Falls   , , , , , , , , ,  

What is the origin story of deep-sea organisms? For decades, we thought shallow coastal waters were the cradle of marine life repeatedly pumping species into the deep. This is the simplest story. The more complex origin story involves multiple anoxic events, catastrophic events, survival of the fittest, so on and so forth with species originating . . . → Read More: Reconsidering the Origins of Marine Life and All Life

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The Origins of Deep-Sea Fauna
The Origins of Deep-Sea Fauna avatar

By , on October 5th, 2009 4 comments   Adaptations, Biology, Cephalopods, Conservation & Environment, Coral, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Organisms, Paleobiology   , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  

If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development. –Aristotle To understand the biogeography of the modern deep sea, we must examine the history of the ocean floor and the establishment of deep-sea fauna. The paleoceanography of the deep-sea is an account of intense fluctuations in temperature, oxygen, and circulation. In the past . . . → Read More: The Origins of Deep-Sea Fauna

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