This week's "Smithsonian Snapshot" is a giant squid eye from their collection, not currently on display at the museum, i.e. ONLY AVAILABLE ONLINE: But they TOTALLY should have put it in a smaller…

Fisherfolk can be tremendous founts of information about marine animals. They know where to find different species, what sort of baits they like best, what sizes to expect, and how all these things…

An Open Letter to UK Prime Minister David Cameron has been signed by a host of politicians, scientists, academics, wildlife experts and celebrities. The letter calls on the UK Government to…

There's a paper out in ProcSoc B about aggressive mimicary, a very devious way to hunt by pretending to be prey or a mate, and then gobbling the hapless critter that comes to investigate. Here are…

. . . don't exist. But because it's finger squid season in Texas, I've been reading up on the closest approximation to a freshwater squid: the Atlantic brief squid, Lolliguncula brevis. It's a pretty…

Researchers have discovered a 525-million-year-old fossil which belongs to a group of tentacle-bearing creatures which lived inside hard tubes.  The creature belongs to a group called…

It's one of the most persistent problems in camouflage: how do you hide your eyes? Skin is not that difficult to disguise. You can change its color, cover it up, match it to your environment. But…

Tree islands, patches of high, dry ground a meter high that dot the marshes of the Florida Everglades, are elevated enough to allow trees to grow and provide a nesting site for alligators and a…

I'll confess it. Even though they're the divas of the ocean, the quintessential charismatic megafauna, even though they overshadow all the other weird and wonderful marine life, I still like whales.…

This is the best song I have heard all year. (Thanks to i'm a chordata! for the shout out.) I might even go so far as to say it's the best song I will hear all year. What could possibly be more…