SMITHSONIAN'S PICK TEN MOST AWE-INSPIRING SEA CREATURES OF 2024! NEW DISCOVERIES

 What a contest!  Truly unique individuals! An awesome list.

SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE : 10 MOST AWE-INSPIRING SEA CREATURE MOMENTS OF 2024

Orcas with salmon hats?  300 year old coral?  Whale in the wrong ocean?  Which of these will awe-inspire YOU?

GREEN SEA TURTLES

OCEAN SEA TURLES - SMITHSONIAN 

EXCERPT: Though often associated with the tropics, sea turtles are actually found in all of the world's oceans except for the polar seas.  Sea turtles have been revered by humans for millennia.  In fact, many creation stories in various world cultures feature tales of the world being built on the back of a sea turtle.

Today there are seven species of sea turtles in existence...

SMITHSONIAN OCEAN on CORAL REEFS and CORAL

OCEAN SMITHSONIAL CORAL REEFS and CORAL 

EXCERPT:  They teem with life, with perhaps one-quarter of all ocean species depending on reefs.

JET BLACK and BIOLUMINESCENT "FOOTBALL-LIKE" FISH WASHES ASHORE IN NEWPORT BEACH

SMITHSONIAN : DEEP SEA FOOTBALL LIKE FISH WASHES ASHORE INTACT  see the photos of this black fish.

Only the FEMALES have bioluminescent aspect to lure fish into their mouths. It's highly unusual for this fish to show up ashore because it usually lives 3000 feet down.

EXCERPT: ...  rare deep-sea fish with teeth resembling tiny shards of glass, a football-shaped body, and a long bioluminescent stalk on the top of its head washed ashore in California this week.  The sea creature was later identified as a female Pacific football fish ....

GLOW IN THE DARK SHARK IS TINY and NEWLY DISCOVERED

SMITHSONIAN: TINY SHARK SPECIES by Brigit Katz

It may look like a tiny WHALE but it's a SHARK and it GLOWS IN THE DARK!

EXCERPT: The animal stretches just five and a half inches long and because of its bulbous head, looks a bit like a tiny whale,  It has rows of small but sharp teeth, and like the 1979 specimen (which proved to be a different creature) two small pockets that produce a luminous fluid - a feature that may aid in attracting prey or eluding predators," according to the authors of the new study...

PANDORA THE OCTOPUS DIES AT THE NATIONAL ZOO

WASHINGTON POST : PANDORA DIES AT NATIONAL ZOO  full article link

At five years old Pandora was in old age...

"The cause of the octopus’s death is still unknown, although most octopuses die after breeding. Pandora had released unfertilized eggs, each the size of a grain of rice, in April 2013.
Zoo curators began to worry about Pandora on Feb. 10, when she started exhibiting the common signs of old age in octopuses: limited movement and less muscle tone."

(GOOD PICTURE OF PANDORA AT THE LINK!)

WHALE GRAVEYARD IN THE CHILIAN DESERT MYSTERY SOLVED

MYSTERY BEHIND WHALE GRAVEYARD IN DESERT  full article link:

"Over 5 million years ago, a mass stranding of whales created what is now a whale graveyard in modern day Chile....
"

THEY USED THE SMITHSONIANS new 3D Modeling tools...

MAD ABOUT SEASHELLS - THE SMITHSONIAN

Did you know that our nation's biggest museum, the SMITHSONIAN, has the largest collection of sea shells?

LINKING HERE TO AN ARTICLE CALLED
MAD ABOUT SEA SHELLS!


click on title link

SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM ON LINE - OCEAN PLANET

Ocean Planet is a great on-line visit. SEA PEOPLE is one of the exhibits. As is Ocean in Peril. As we all go back to school - or remain life long learners - we want to know the latest on our precious oceans!

OCEAN PLANET SITE : THE SMITHSONIAN

In 1995 the Nation's Museum, The Smithsonian, had a special exhibit about the oceans. This is what remains of that exhibit.