Marine Biology

Even though the basking shark is the world's second-largest fish, much of its life has eluded observation. Now, however, researchers have determined that the usually solitary animals find mates by meeting up and circling around one another.

By combining cutting-edge digital modeling with analysis of a rare, one-of-a-kind fossil, scientists have managed to piece together the first 3D reconstruction of the megalodon, the largest shark to ever live.

This year's Underwater Photographer of the Year contest delivers the competition’s most spectacular batch of winners to date, including an extraordinary face to face with a Great White Shark and a surreal glimpse at a shipwreck off the coast of Norway.

How do whales gulp down huge amounts of water and krill without drowning themselves with every mouthful? Researchers have now discovered an “oral plug” in the throats of some species that blocks either their airways or esophagus as needed.

Scientists have discovered fossils of a new species of aquatic reptile that may be the first giant animal that ever lived on Earth. Cymbospondylus youngorum is a new type of ichthyosaur dating back to the early stages of the Age of Dinosaurs.

A massive marine park entering its final phase of construction in the United Arab Emirates will invite visitors to enjoy an aquarium housing an astounding 68,000 marine animals once completed sometime next year.

It’s hard to get medical adhesives to stick when blood is making everything wet. Now, MIT researchers have developed a new surgical glue that can halt bleeding within 30 seconds, inspired by the super-strong underwater adhesive used by barnacles.

Trilobites are one of the most common creatures found in the fossil record, but now some particularly well-preserved specimens have revealed some intriguing new details. It turns out that trilobites breathed oxygen – through their legs.

It’s normally a leg here or a tail there, but scientists have now discovered one of the most extreme examples of limb regeneration ever seen in an animal – sea slugs that voluntarily detach their own heads and then regrow an entire body from it.

Scientists studying more than half a century of data on bottom-dwelling shellfish have uncovered evidence of a feedback loop in which generations of these marine creatures are becoming trapped in warmer areas that threaten their survival.

Fabien Cousteau, grandson of famed underwater filmmaker and scuba co-inventor Jacques Cousteau, is planning to build an underwater living habitat and research station three times the size of any ever built, named after the grandson of Poseidon.

Although cold waters aren't known for their coral reefs, they do contain ecologically important "glass reefs" created by live sponges. Now, scientists have discovered a previously unknown species of sponge living on those reefs, in Canada.