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Wholphin: a fertile hybrid
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A wholphin is a rare fertile hybrid born from mating a bottlenose dolphin ( Tursiops truncatus) (mother), and a false killer whale ( Pseudorca crassidens). Although they have been reported to exist in the wild, the first captive wholphin was born in 1945, where a bottlenose dolphin and a male false killer whale shared a pool. The wholphin's size, color and shape are intermediate between the parent species. For example, an adult wholphin has 66 teeth - intermediate between a bottlenose (88 teeth) and false killer whale (44 teeth). They are smaller than a false killer whale but are larger than a normal bottlenose. Normally, when two different, yet similar species mate, such as a female horse and a male donkey forming a mule, the progeny is expec ...
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6653 |
bio_man |
2 years ago |
The ghost fish has been captured on video for the first time
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A living, swimming ghost fish has been seen live for the first time ever. The fish, part of the family Aphyonidae, was caught on camera during an ongoing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) exploration by the ship Okeanos Explorer. The exploration centers on the deep ocean at Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, a protected area spanning 95,216 square miles (246,608 square kilometers) east of the Philippines. The secretive fish was swimming along a ridge 8,202 feet (2,500 meters) down, according to NOAA. The animal is about 4 inches (10 centimeters) long, with translucent, scale-less skin and eerie, colorless eyes. No fish in the family Aphyonidae has ever been seen alive before. ...
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5006 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Super strange spider found off Antarctica
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Collected from the Ross Sea shelf in southern Antarctica, this 9.8-inch-long (25-centimeter-long) giant sea spider was one of 30,000 animals found during a 35-day census in early 2008. The marine arachnids, which prey on hydroids and bryzoans - branching, coral-like animals - are larger and more common in Antarctic waters than anywhere else on Earth. Cold temperatures, few predators, and high levels of oxygen in seawater could explain their gargantuan size.
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4855 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
The ocean is louder than you think
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Nearly 11 kilometers deep, the ocean is still a noisy place, according to scientists that have eavesdropped on the deepest part of the world's ocean, and instead of finding a sea of silence, discovered a cacophony of sounds both natural and caused by humans. For three weeks, a titanium-encased hydrophone recorded constant ambient noise from the ocean floor at a depth of more than 36,000 feet, or 7 miles, in the Challenger Deep trough in the Mariana Trench near Micronesia. The ambient sound field is dominated by the sound of earthquakes, both near and far, as well as distinct moans of baleen whales, and the clamor of a category 4 typhoon that just happened to pass overhead. The hydrophone also picked up sound from ship propellers. Challenge ...
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12780 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Glow-in-the-dark shark
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Meet the ninja lanternshark. It's a newly discovered animal that's really weird. It hides in the deep - and its black skin keeps it camouflaged - but it also glows in the dark. The ninja lanternshark was discovered by a team at the Pacific Shark Research Centre, in Moss Landing, California. Its official Latin name is Etmopterus benchleyi, after Jaws author Peter Benchley. The ninja lanternshark is roughly half a metre, or 18 inches long, and it lives at a depth of about 1,000 metres off the Pacific Coast of Central America. Its odd combo of dark and light helps it creep up on its prey, according to its discoverers. ...
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16506 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
A precious gift from mother nature
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One of the driest places on Earth, the Atacama Desert in Chile - has become covered in a carpet of flowers, thanks to a year of extreme rainfall brought on by El Niño. El Niño is the abnormal warming of waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean around the equator.
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5424 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Nearly every seabird may be eating plastic by 2050
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There’s so much trash floating in some parts of the ocean that each square kilometer of surface water there holds almost 600,000 pieces of debris. Indeed, because there's so much of it, by 2050 birds of almost every ocean-foraging species may be eating plastic.
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30730 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
A view of the ocean floor
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From July 10 to September 30, a team from the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) exploration ship, Okeanos Explorer, is going to be mapping the deep waters of the Hawaiian Archipelago in the North Pacific Ocean. This largely unknown deep-sea ecosystems will be explored for the first time using robotic submersibles, as shown in the video above.
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2002 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
An alien-looking dolphin species
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Meet the Irrawaddy dolphin ( Orcaella brevirostris), a euryhaline species of oceanic dolphin found in discontinuous subpopulations near sea coasts and in estuaries and rivers in parts of the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia. Genetically, the Irrawaddy dolphin is closely related to the killer whale (orca). As evident in the collage, its forehead is high and rounded, and unlike most dolphins, the beak is lacking, giving it a you know what appearance - don't get any funny ideas now! ...
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5835 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
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1896 |
ehd123 |
9 years ago |
Humans and Earth - the battle
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When you turn on your TV, it is the definition of ironic to watch the news channels for information about planet mass destruction. Whilst when you step outside your door, it is quite alarming and obvious that our earth is suffering. When every person around you, from toddlers to elderly, own some for of technology, with no means of recycling old items. When students, each with their own copies of pages. When potable water has not yet reached the most needy of nations. When human greed is apparent with every innovative idea claiming to "revolutionize "a domain brought up to make a quick buck. Drilling, mining, industrialization, politics, scavenging for resources, suffocating our environment... This may all seem negative, but coming from a ...
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2792 |
ehd123 |
9 years ago |
What's the ocean's equivalent to the cheetah?
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The shortfin mako ( Isurus oxyrinchus) is probably the champion speedster among sharks. Its speed has been recorded at 40 km/h (25 mph) with bursts of up to 74 km/h (46 mph). What's more, this high-leaping fish can leap approximately 9 m (30 ft) high or higher in the air. With its highly streamlined body, a lunate tail supported by keels, a sharply pointed snout, large eyes and some of the wickedest-looking teeth in its class, the mako shark is a highly sought-after game fish worldwide. ...
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9463 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
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24662 |
ehd123 |
9 years ago |
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24776 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
How ocean creatures size up to humans
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Here are the most accurate measurements of the ocean's biggest animals. These are confirmed measurements, unlike many found on the internet that state outrageous numbers.
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17978 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
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