“Impossible Figures” Minimalist Posters by  Éric Le Tutour

Great white sharks' sharp, sturdy teeth can rip into flesh and even break bones of large prey.

Two lemon sharks hang out near the Bahama Islands.

A diver follows a whale shark in the Indian Ocean.

Left: To humans, the chain catshark seems to have brownish-yellow skin with black chain-shaped markings. Right: To capture this image, scientists built a camera that sees the world like this shark does.

A great white shark swims in waters off of Australia’s Neptune islands.

A Greenland shark swims below the Arctic Ocean ice, off the coast of Canada.

A bonnethead shark explores the waters off the Florida Keys.

A spinner shark prepares to fly through a school of fish.

Sharks, such as this shortfin mako, have special reflective cells in their eyes that give them clear night vision. So it's no wonder that sharks typically hunt at dusk or after dark.

By Marco Zagara

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Vessel sound is temporarily causing hearing loss in squids

Globally, anthropogenic sounds have become louder and more persistent, however, little is known about how invertebrates detect and respond to human-made sound. Now, new research shown noise associated with boats causes  causes temporal hearing loss in squids across different stages of their life cycle.

The hummingbird bobtail squid (Euprymna berryi) has a short lifespan of at least 6 months, which make them a convenient animal for lab studies. Hearing and behavioural observations were made by researchers before, during and after 15 minutes of vessel sound playback, to test how these squids react to noise pollution, and noted that these squids decrease their hearing sensitivity after exposure to noise, and particularly noise affected juveniles. Juvenile squids experienced an important hearing loss sensitivity after noise exposure between 400 and 800 Hz, while adult and mature squids decreased their sensibility after 200 to 600 Hz exposure, showing more resistence. All squids recovered auditory sensitivity within two hours.

Researchers aim the inclusion of cephalopods within management and policy, because anthropogenic activities and associated sound levels in the ocean are increasing, while the role sound plays in cephalopod life history is only just beginning to be understood.

Photo by Pascal Girard

Reference ()  Putland et al. 2023. Vessel sound causes hearing loss for hummingbird bobtail squid (Euprymna berryi). Frontiers in Marine Science 

Mauritian Sunset - Sandy Smith, 2006

Comb jellies—also known as ctenophores—come in a wide range of shapes and sizes. Many are transparent, but some deep-sea species, like the abyssal comb jelly, Beroe abyssicola, are ruby red or deep purple in color. So far, scientists have described approximately 200 ctenophore species.

Comb jellies swim by flicking hair-like ctenes back and forth. When the lights of our submersibles illuminate an abyssal comb jelly, the ctene rows diffract the light into the colors of the rainbow, creating those dazzling disco lights.

Most animals in the midnight zone produce bioluminescence. The abyssal comb jelly has a scarlet stomach that absorbs the light produced by meals digesting in its gut. The red pigment absorbs blue-green bioluminescence, keeping Beroe hidden from predators. Many other deep-sea jellies employ a similar strategy. Learn more about these dazzling denizens of the deep on our website.

photography by nicolaslenatti

all i want is for my conciousness to be transferred to a computer when i die.

Appleseed (2004)