Content-Length: 213914 | pFad | https://oceanportal.tumblr.com/tagged/nature%20photography
Beautiful Worms? A photo series for Polychaete Day
This one looks like a rainbow.
©Alexander Semenov
Some of the most extraordinary color displays in the ocean come from octopus, squid, and cuttlefish. How do they pull off such mesmerizing complexions?
Not only do octopuses have color changing cells in their skin called chromatophores, they also have specialized cells that reflect light. The iridiphores are responsible for the metallic blues and greens, and leucophores reflect all light to create white spots.
Photo Credit: Okinawa Nature Photography, Flickr
Some nudibranchs, like the one pictured here, steal the defenses of their prey. While eating an anemone the nudibranch stores the stinging cells in special pouches. Upon being threatened by a predator they shoot the stolen cells.
Credit: © João Pedro Silva, Flickr
*Spoiler!*— It’s a sea star
Sea stars creep along the seafloor using hundreds of little tube feet. These tube feet function through a water vascular system that extends and retracts the feet using hydraulic forces.
Credit: © Saeed Rashid, Flickr
Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are very social animals, and often travel and hunt in groups called pods. The most common is a nursery group of 5-20 dolphins made up of females and their calves—although occasionally they will gather in groups (with males) of 1,000 or more. They often hunt together and learn different tricks for catching food from one another (such as using sponges to dig up buried prey) in a kind of cultural transmission.
Photo Credit: NOAA
“Lembeh Strait is a fantastic place to find species that have evolved to resemble other animals or plants to survive. Because of the lens I was using, I had to get really close to this crab. As I moved in, it retreated into the xenia coral polyps. When I backed up, it came back out. The skittish crab, in addition to having the wrong lens for the task, made this a challenging shot.” – Nature’s Best Photographer, Marli Wakeling
This harp seal (Phoca groenlandica) pup rests on the ice at sunset in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada while its mother hunts. Adult harp seals have dappled gray fur, but the babies are born white and are known as “whitecoats.” After 12 days of nursing, grey color begins to show and, a week later, the white fur begins to fall out in patches.
Photo Credit: © Brian Skerry, National Geographic
Well, hello there. The whiskered face of this California sea lion is here to make your day.
You can see this image (and many others) on view in the new Nature’s Best Photography exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History!
Photo by: Andrew Sallmon
Good morning! This yawning Galapagos sea lion is feeling the lazy Sunday vibes too
Credit: Rob Mast, Marine Photobank
The recovery of Atlantic puffins in the Northeast U.S. took many years, and now that their populations have rebounded since the late 19th century, citizens and scientists are keeping a close eye on the species to see how climate change will impact their populations.
One way they’re doing this is by keeping track of the fish being carried back to chicks in the puffins’ beaks via webcam. Are they good healthy fish? Are they fish normally found in the area?
Read the full story from Audubon’s Dr. Steven Kress, director of Project Puffin.
Photo: Steve Garvie, Flickr
sarahmackattack
bears-official
@squidscientistas any idea who this boy is or Whunt he may be doing? Mike Vecchione’s got nothin, other than “the most bizarre squid I’ve ever seen…”
(Okeanos is diving on an unexplored seamount in the Gulf of Mexico until ~4pm CDT, follow along here)
Man if Mike doesn’t know, nobody knows! Seriously, I saw this thing and my jaw dropped. So cool, so bizarre!!! It’s been a good day for cephalopods!
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