“Shields up! Phasers set to kill! Engage!” If the Pacific Torpedo Ray (Torpedo californica) had an inner dialogue whilst stalking delicious fishy snacks, I could imagine it…
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Category: Evolution
These Are a Few of My Favorite Species: Spotted Porcupine Fish
As scientific mariners, we spend an inordinate amount of shore time on sleezy docks and seedy piers around the world, from the gritty shipyards of…
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The strange world of the bright blue Velella
Over the past few months, odd floating jellies have been washing up on Pacific US beaches by the thousands. With clear plastic-like sails, and bright blue flesh,…
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Whales Can Only Taste Salty
Five basic types of taste exist: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. Most people are familiar with all of these except the last, umami, which…
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The Tale of a New Phylum That Really Wasn’t
In 1986, a group of scientists from Australia and New Zealand described, in the one of the highest profile scientific journals, the existence of a…
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Future Shark: Living in an Ocean on the Brink
Last week Discovery Channel successfully botched yet another Shark Week. Big surprise there. Don’t get me wrong, there were some (and by some I mean…
View More Future Shark: Living in an Ocean on the BrinkA Narrative of Coral-Dwelling Barnacles With the Aid of Internet Memes
Not everything on a coral is actually a coral. Embedded into the hard coral’s surfaces are nearly 100 species of specialized barnacles—the Pyrgomatidae. New work…
View More A Narrative of Coral-Dwelling Barnacles With the Aid of Internet Memes
Sex, Snails, Sustenance…and Rock & Roll
One of the things in the title was not actually part of my latest published research, unless you count the soundtrack I played while…
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The all seeing, all knowing, eye of upside down barnacles
Reader Jonathan W. wrote into DSN with this You guys are some of the most accessible in marine science, so I thought I pose this…
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A (Not So Serious) Scientific Treatment of Mermaids
It is hard to know where to start in describing Karl Banse, professor emeritus at the University of Washington. He is one of the world’s…
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