Posts tagged as:

Sea life

Giant Amoebae on (Extremely Slow) Rampage

March 10, 2010

This is so cool. I totally missed it when it came out in November 2008. If you did too, here’s your second chance.

In Russia, amoeba study YOU.
OK, giant deep-sea amoebae that roll around like possessed dust bunnies? AWESOME. The 411. Though this group had just been discovered in the Arabian Sea in 2000, it seems [...]

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The Oceanic X Prize: Deep Sea for the Rest of Us?

March 3, 2010

“This here’s a bottomless pit, baby. Two and a half miles, straight down.” — Catfish De Vries, The Abyss
One of my many dreams is to travel to the bottom of the ocean to see hydrothermal vent communities, bizarre abyssal creatures and methane seeps with my own eyes. I can’t believe I missed this when [...]

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Extreme (Plankton) Closeup!

February 22, 2010

Most people have only seen plankton in crappy, fuzzy photos in college textbooks, if they’ve seen it at all. If you have heard of it, it’s probably in the context of the stuff baleen whales eat, and that’s about it. I personally was lucky enough to see an entire jar of the delicacy when I [...]

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The Seafaring Killer Bacterium

February 14, 2010

Vibrio cholerae is a bacterium of surprising adaptability, tenacity, and Olympic-class swimming ability. Cholera bacteria can swim in both freshwater and saltwater (a feat most fish cannot manage), and somehow also manage to do the backstroke through stomach acid without kicking the bucket. The historic killer has just popped up again in Papua New Guinea [...]

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Oceans: A New Film by the Greatest Nature Documentarian of All Time (IMHO)

February 2, 2010

I can’t say enough about the work of Jacques Perrin. The French filmmaker has been making nature documentaries of the highest order since 1996, when “Microcosmos” was released (though unlike films I will mention later in this post he only produced, not directed the film). The film, a triumph of bringing the daily dramas of [...]

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Have You Seen This Creature?

August 25, 2009

‘Cause scientists sure haven’t. And they really, really want to. The creature in question is Paleodictyon nodosum. And before you do anything else, go check out this article in the New York Times by William J. Broad and take a gander at it. If this is a blog about the weird wonderfulness of life on [...]

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What is a Sea Pig?

July 10, 2009

I’m so glad you asked! What IS a sea pig?  Here’s a hint: a sea pig is an echinoderm. No? Still not picturing it? A sea pig is in a group of echinoderms called sea cucumbers. Like this:
OK, so the short answer is that a sea pig looks like a cross between a star-nosed mole, [...]

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To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before (On Planet Earth)

June 23, 2009

Today I give a Pseudopod Salute to ocean explorer Bob Ballard, discoverer of the Titanic, who gave one of the best plain English explanations of tube worms and the importance of ocean research to Stephen Colbert back in February I have ever heard, and seems like a genuinely nice guy to boot:

The Colbert Report
Mon – [...]

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Dude, Where’s My Cod?

June 6, 2009

Anyone who’s spent time fishing can tell you that every so often, after patiently waiting hours for a bite, one will reel in one’s line to discover that somehow, someone has pilfered the bait. Apparently Alaska black cod fishermen have a problem along the same lines(so to speak), although in this case it was the [...]

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Unidentified feathery object (UFO)

May 10, 2009

Again via Deep Sea News, here’s a video of a “ninja seaweed” from the Red Sea. Prepare to be impressed:

This is what 600 million years of relentless predation will do for ya, folks.
Nothing to see here. These aren’t the . . . whatevers . . . we’re looking for. Move along.
Guesses on the identity of [...]

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