Marine Animals

Marine Animals

Leopard sharks in kelp forest

Photographer has astonishing leopard shark encounter in enchanted kelp forest

A diver shares his magical moment with leopard sharks in the twinkling canopies of a kelp forest.
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Sean Steininger/Getty Images

When experts tagged diving whales, they discovered something astonishing about their song

For the first time, researchers have matched an entire whale song to an entire dive – and found the song changes in step with what the whale’s body is doing underwater
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A critically endangered male red handfish (Thymichthys politus) at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies in Hobart, Tasmania.

Joel Sartore has photographed 18,000 species. His latest is one of the weirdest and rarest yet

After a decade of photographing animals around the world, Joel Sartore has captured his 18,000th species: the critically endangered red handfish.
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Humpback whale tag

When scientists put a camera tag on a whale, they never expected to see this

When NOAA researchers used suction-cup tags to study cetaceans, they caught the incredible moment a whale breached.
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Fire worm underwater Sea life Scuba diver point of view

"Its bristles are like thousands of tiny, hollow needles poking out of every inch of skin, ready to inject you with neurotoxin that burns like fire for several hours…"

A sting burns like fire and they can turn their throat inside out to gobble down a meal. This is the fireworm
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Pygmy blue whale

Staggering drone footage shows 24m giants speeding through Indonesian waters

Wildlife watchers were lucky enough to be joined by three pygmy blue whales.
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California coastline near San Diego

As a huge storm approached the US coast, California's great white sharks did this

For the first time, scientists have documented what white sharks do when storms are on the way.
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Hairy anglerfish

“Probably ate it headfirst." Here's what scientists found inside this deep-sea fish’s bulging belly

Researchers at the Natural History Museum wanted to solve the intriguing mystery of what was inside this rare fish’s enormous stomach without cutting it open – here’s how they did it.
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Pebble crabs are a member of the Xanthidae

Crab might be a delicacy, but this one is highly poisonous and deadly to eat – just a tiny amount can kill a human and there's no antidote!

Discover the colourful, toxic crab which can kill – warning, there is no cure - and therefore shoudn't be eaten!
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How do whales mate

How do whales mate? For animals as big as whales, sex can be a tricky affair and lengthy affair - here's how they do it

Discover the fascinating world of whale reproduction...
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Lion's mane jellyfish

“It was pure chaos!” This diver stumbled across a huge creature cruising through the ocean…

Underwater videographer shares incredible footage of the moment he discovers an enormous lion's mane jellyfish.
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It strikes fear into swimmers around the world and sends people scrambling from the water – but what exactly is the point of a dorsal fin?

The dorsal fin is one of the most recognisable features in the animal kingdom, but it's far more than a dramatic silhouette. Here's why so many creatures have evolved one
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It looks like something from science fiction, has a 1m leg-span, can pinch with the force of a gorilla's bite and – terrifyingly – can climb trees…

Common dolphins

‘It forms pods of up to 10,000 individuals and the water looks like it’s been whipped into a froth’

Advanced social skills and excellent teamwork help these cetaceans thrive around the world
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Turritopsis dohrnii. © Yiming Chen/Getty

"They dodge death by hitting rewind. Even after a dead medusa has collapsed into a pile of mush, its cells can grow into polyps…"

Immortal jellyfish, and a few similar species, are said to be immortal. But how true is this claim? Dr Helen Scales explains.
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Cuvier’s beaked whale

They have strange beaks, bizarre bodies and can plunge more than 2.5km into the deep ocean… Are these the world's strangest whales?

A close-up of a live scallop in water opens to show its vivid blue eyes.

"It's small enough to hold in your hand, but equipped with an underwater surveillance system worthy of a deep-sea spy…"

Does it really need this number of eyes?
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How to help a beached, stranded whale or dolphin - and help save its life

A beached cetacean is a distressing sight, but there are ways you can help until the marine medics arrive, says British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR)
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© Mark Carwardine/Getty

It's as sleek as a torpedo, as long as a bus, and weighs the same as an elephant: The ocean creature that slices through water at a speedy 35 km/h

Our guide to the minke whale, the UK's most frequently spotted whale
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Kelp forest in California

It contains over half of Earth’s water and all of the continents could fit into its basin in one mega-puzzle

The world’s largest ocean is home to incredible wildlife and is crucial to the Earth’s climate system
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what happens to dead whales

"Their lipid- and protein-laden bodies create unique, nutrient-rich ecosystems that may sustain creatures of the abyss for decades…"

Ever wondered what happens when a whale dies in the ocean? Joanna Bagniewska explains
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Matt Rutherford encounters pilot whales in Arctic Ocean

"You can hear them talking to each other through your hull.” Sailor alone at sea for a week. Then this happens

One week into a 10,000-mile solo voyage across the Arctic Ocean, this sailor had a wildlife encounter to remember.
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Humpback whales collaborative benthic hunting

Researchers followed humpback whales to the seabed – and saw them hunting in a way never seen before

Scientists just saw – and filmed – humpbacks cooperatively hunting along the seafloor for the first time.
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White shark in Nusa Penida

Scuba divers in Bali thought this huge shape was a whale shark. But it wasn't

In an extremely rare encounter, a great white shark joined a group of scuba divers in Indonesia.
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