Achilles Tang

This month we are showcasing the Central Oklahoma Marine Aquarium Society (COMAS). View the full article

Check out the latest upcoming events of interest to marine aquarists. View the full article

Top Ten Cutest Little Creature Added To Your Tank Only To Have It Turn Into A Homicidal Killer The Moment It Touched Water... View the full article

DIY Wavebox Tutorial from start to finish! View the full article

Mankind's closest relatives - the world's monkeys, apes and other primates - are disappearing from the face of the Earth, with some literally being eaten into extinction. (2008-08-05) View the full article

Environmental conservation efforts have traditionally focused on protecting individual species or natural resources. Scientists are discovering, however, that preserving the benefits that whole ecosystems provide to people is more economically and environmentally valuable. Ecologists will explore the application of ecosystem services approaches to conservation. View the full article

Spanish researchers recently explored around 100 kilometers of practically uncharted Atlantic beach in the north of Colombia and south of Panama between the years 2006 and 2007. In the course of their work, they came across extensive nesting grounds that bring new hope for the survival of the leatherback turtle. This species suffered a grave decline in the twentieth century and is among those considered by the World Conservation Union to be in critical danger of extinction. View the full article

University of New Hampshire researchers have tagged one male and two female leatherback turtles off Cape Cod. They are the first free-swimming leatherbacks ever tagged in New England. The 700-800-pound leatherback turtles, an endangered species, were tagged July 17, 26 and 29 with GPS-linked satellite tags that transmit nearly real-time tracking data, allowing scientists to better understand these elusive, highly migratory giants to enhance their survivability. View the full article

When competitors are around, male Atlantic mollies try to hide their top mate choice, reveals a new study. They feign disinterest in females after onlookers enter the scene. What's more, after encountering a rival, the tricky males direct their first sexual advances toward females that really aren't their first pick. View the full article

If you're fishing for ways to reduce the risk of heart disease, you might start with the seafood-rich diet typically served up in Japan. The research, published in the Aug. 5, 2008, issue of Journal of the American College of Cardiology, suggests that protection comes from omega-3 fatty acids found in abundance in oily fish. View the full article

In vertebrates with separate sexes, sex determination can be genotypic or temperature-dependent (TSD). TSD is very common in reptiles, where the ambient temperature during sensitive periods of early development irreversibly determines whether an individual will be male or female. But just how common is this phenomenon in fish? View the full article

Researchers from the University of Murcia have demonstrated the vulnerability of the Mar Menor coastal lagoon to climate change. As a result of an up to 5°C increase in water temperatures over the next few years, this pioneering study shows an increase in the regression rate of benthic primary producers, a deterioration in ecological status and the appearance of eutrophication processes in many coastal lagoons. Notable effects include the proliferation of jellyfish. View the full article

A global change in climate could explain the explosion in marine biodiversity that took place 460 million years ago. Researchers have now found evidence of a progressive ocean cooling of about 15°C over a period of 40 million years during the Ordovician. Until now, this geologic period had been associated with a "super greenhouse effect" on our planet. View the full article

Cut off one finger from a salamander and one will grow back. Cut off two and two will grow back. It sounds logical, but how the salamander always regenerates the right number of fingers is still a biological mystery. View the full article

The ocean is a noisy place. Although we don't hear much when we stick our heads underwater, the right instruments can reveal a symphony of sound. The noisemakers range from the low-frequency bass tones of a fish mating ritual to the roar of a motorboat. The study of how underwater animals hear is a growing topic in marine science, especially with regards to naval sonar and whales. View the full article

By absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and from the human use of fossil fuels, the world?s seas function as a giant buffer for the Earth?s life support system. The chemical balance of the sea has long been regarded as immovable. Today researchers know that the pH of the sea?s surface water has gone down by 0.1, or 25 percent, just since the beginning of industrialization just over a century ago. This acidification process affects marine animal life. View the full article

Errr... errrr that's only for chicks to know and for you to find out!

Different specimens have of the same size may have different-sized teardrops. They do get larger with age.

Resisting pressures to convert wetlands for agriculture, bio-fuels and hydro-electricity is vital to avoid destroying ecosystems that provide a suite of services essential to humanity, including safe, steady local water supplies, preserving biodiversity and the large-scale capture and storage of climate warming greenhouse gases, according 700 leading world experts concluding a week-long meeting in Cuiaba, Brazil. View the full article

In the murky waters of an inconspicuous stream in a remote area of Wyoming, researchers detail the potential impact that an introduced fish, the white sucker, could have on the evolutionary biology of fishes. View the full article

In a study of free-living and parasitic species in three estuaries on the Pacific coast of California and Baja California, researchers have determined that parasite biomass in those habitats exceeds that of top predators, in some cases by a factor of 20. Their findings, which could have significant biomedical and ecological implications, appear in the science journal Nature. From an ecological perspective, parasites serve both as regulators to prevent species from becoming numerically dominant and as indicators of the health of a particular ecosystem. The study shows for the first time that parasites might drive the flow of energy in ecosystems. View the full article

Biofilms develop on any surface that bacteria can attach themselves to. The dilemma we face is that neither disinfectants and antibiotics, nor phagocytes and our immune system can destroy these biofilms. Scientists have now identified one of the fundamental mechanisms used by the bacteria in biofilms to protect themselves against the attacking phagocytes. View the full article

Ice age climate change and ancient flooding -- but not barriers created by rivers -- may have promoted the evolution of new insect species in the Amazon region of South America, a new study suggests. The Amazon basin is home to the richest diversity of life on earth, yet the reasons why this came to be are not well understood. View the full article

Mangrove destruction not only comes with ecological cost, but monetary as well: $37,500 per hectare each year, researchers say. Mexican mangroves, trees that form forest ecosystems at the land-sea interface, demonstrably boost fishery yields in the Gulf of California. View the full article

No-take marine reserves where fishing is banned can have benefits that extend beyond the exploited fishes they are specifically designed to protect, according to new evidence from Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Researchers have found that outbreaks of large, predatory crown-of-thorns starfish, which can devastate coral reefs although they don't yet know exactly why. View the full article