A Tunicate Medley

The Komodo National Park site in Indonesia was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1991. The site hosts "Komodo dragons" (Varanus komodoensis), a unique species that exists nowhere else in the world and is of great interest to scientists studying evolution. The rugged hillsides of dry savannah and pockets of thorny green vegetation contrast starkly with the brilliant white sandy beaches and blue coral-rich waters offshore. Pictured here is some of the diversity of marine life in the park: three species of tunicates ("sea squirts") - Polycarpa aurata is purple and orange, Atriolum robustum is green, and the blue is from the genus Rhopalaea. 

Photo Credit: Nick Hobgood

A sneak peek before Wednesday’s 4th of July festivities. This polychaete reminds us of fireworks.

Spaghetti worms are named for the long, thin tentacles they use to feed and explore the seafloor around the opening of their tube. 

Your next polychaete on the hour.

This scale worm's bumpy scales and bristles glow brilliantly under fluorescent light

Beautiful Worms? A photo series for Polychaete Day

This brilliant scaleworm spends its life with a sea star partner, which wears it like a piece of jewelry.

©Alexander Semenov

Beautiful Worms? A photo series for Polychaete Day

This one looks like a rainbow.

©Alexander Semenov

If I said these creatures were our distant cousins, would you believe me? Well, they are!

About 3,000 tunicate species are found in salt water habitats throughout the world. Although tunicates are invertebrates (animals without backbones) found in the subphylum Tunicata (sometimes called Urochordata), they are part of the Phylum Chordata, which also includes animals with backbones, like us.

https://ocean.si.edu/tunicates-not-so-spineless-invertebrates

Photo Credit: Ian Davidson, Smithsonian

Some mesmerizing jellies for your hump day.

The National Museum of Natural History is more than just a museum. Heres a peek behind the scenes in the aquaroom, a jellyfish research lab. Today we visited and got to check out these beautiful cassiopea, or upside down jellyfish.

What goes in must come out in some form, and with parrotfish, what comes out is sand.

As the name might suggest, these tropical fish, with their big beaks and bright colors, look like their land-based counterparts. Parrotfish live in coral reefs and spend their days chomping down on coral. Hard coral is no match for the large beak of the parrotfish, which researchers have recently found is formed by some of the strongest teeth in the world.

https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/fish/tough-teeth-and-parrotfish-poop

For residents of the Marshall Islands, a system of over a thousand islands found on 29 small atolls in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, sea level rise is already an existential threat. To help prepare for the future scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and other collaborating institutions are using drones and satellites to create 3D maps of the island.

https://ocean.si.edu/mapping-out-whats-next-marshall-islands

Photo Courtesty Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy

New Ocean Zone Discovered!

The newly recognized rariphotic zone ranges from 130 meters to at least 309 meters (427-1,014 feet). It is too deep for corals with photosynthetic algae to grow, and it is also too deep for even the specialized SCUBA equipment used to explore mesophotic reefs. Submersibles and remotely operated vehicles can explore the region, but they are expensive and normally used to scope out even deeper depths of the ocean. As a result, most reef researchers seldom make it to the rariphotic zone. 

https://ocean.si.edu/new-ocean-zone-described-help-submersible

Yes, that is a beating heart! Scientist Rachael Heuer examines fish heart cells in an effort to learn how oil from an oil spill impacts the heart's functioning—and keeping the heart happy and pumping outside of the fish is just one step in figuring this out.

Turns out even a little bit of oil hinders heart functioning. Need more info? Read the full scoop at https://ocean.si.edu/fish-heart-out-water

Video courtesy of Rachel Heuer