marine biology

(Newser) - Somewhere under the Antarctic Ocean, brittle starfish completely cover a submerged mountain. In the Pacific, sharks congregate in a region with few food sources but plenty of opportunity for romance. Those facts, along with an accounting of more than 5,000 newly discovered species, are part of the results of...

(Newser) - A blacktip shark at a Virginia aquarium got pregnant despite not having been around a male of her kind for a decade, the Virginian-Pilot reports. Scientists have long suspected that sharks, like some smaller vertebrates, could reproduce asexually but this is only the second confirmed case. Tests showed the baby...

(Newser) - Scientists have captured a live fish from a record 7,500 feet under the Atlantic Ocean, the BBC reports. A new device allows recovery of live creatures from much farther down than was previously possible. The expedition to learn more about life around hydrothermal vents deep beneath the ocean also...

(Newser) - With eyes bigger than dinner plates and orange-sized lenses, a colossal squid being dissected by New Zealand scientists boasts the biggest peepers of any animal—and larger relatives could lurk in the deep, the Telegraph reports. It's "certainly not the largest specimen out there," said one marine biologist,...