From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A male whale shark at the Georgia Aquarium.
A male whale shark at the Georgia Aquarium.

The Marine Life Portal

Killer whales (orcas) are highly visible marine apex predators that hunt many large species. But most biological activity in the ocean takes place with microscopic marine organisms that cannot be seen individually with the naked eye, such as marine bacteria and phytoplankton.

Marine life, sea life, or ocean life is the plants, animals, and other organisms that live in the salt water of seas or oceans, or the brackish water of coastal estuaries. At a fundamental level, marine life affects the nature of the planet. Marine organisms, mostly microorganisms, produce oxygen and sequester carbon. Marine life, in part, shape and protect shorelines, and some marine organisms even help create new land (e.g. coral building reefs).

Marine invertebrates exhibit a wide range of modifications to survive in poorly oxygenated waters, including breathing tubes as in mollusc siphons. Fish have gills instead of lungs, although some species of fish, such as the lungfish, have both. Marine mammals (e.g. dolphins, whales, otters, and seals) need to surface periodically to breathe air. ( Full article...)


Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather than on taxonomy. ( Full article...)

Recognized content - load new batch

Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

Selected article - show another

The cephalopods have a long geological history, with the first nautiloids found in late Cambrian strata, and purported stem-group representatives present in the earliest Cambrian lagerstätten.

The class developed during the middle Cambrian, and underwent pulses of diversification during the Ordovician period to become diverse and dominant in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic seas. Small shelly fossils such as Tommotia were once interpreted as early cephalopods, but today these tiny fossils are recognized as sclerites of larger animals, and the earliest accepted cephalopods date to the Middle Cambrian Period. During the Cambrian, cephalopods are most common in shallow near-shore environments, but they have been found in deeper waters too. Cephalopods were thought to have "undoubtedly" arisen from within the tryblidiid monoplacophoran clade. However genetic studies suggest that they are more basal, forming a sister group to the Scaphopoda but otherwise basal to all other major mollusc classes. The internal phylogeny of Mollusca, however, is wide open to interpretation – see mollusc phylogeny. ( Full article...)
List of selected articles

Marine life images - load new batch

General images - load new batch

The following are images from various marine life-related articles on Wikipedia.

Did you know (auto-generated)

More Did you know - load new batch

  • ... baleen from the Mysticeti whales mouths was used to stiffen parts of women's stays and dresses, like corsets
  • ... A typical shark has several hundred teeth at any one time.
  • ... The teeth of carnivorous sharks are not attached to the jaw, but embedded in their flesh. In many species, teeth are constantly replaced throughout the shark's life.
  • ... the ‘strapped toothed’ whale is so called because in mature males there are only two teeth in the bottom jaw and these completely ‘strap’ the upper jaw, preventing it from opening more than a few centimetres. How these animals eat is unknown, but it may be that they stun their prey with high intensity sound.
  • ... the Orca, is the fastest swimmer of all the cetaceans and can reach speeds of more than 50km/h while hunting.
  • ... The sea otter often keeps a stone tool in its armpit pouch.

Related portals

Topics

List articles

Categories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories


Selected image

Cuttlefish use camouflage to hide from predators.
Cuttlefish use camouflage to hide from predators.
Photo credit: Raul654

Cuttlefish are sometimes called the chameleon of the sea because of their remarkable ability to rapidly alter their skin colour at will. Their skin flashes a fast-changing pattern as communication to other cuttlefish and to camouflage them from predators.

More on the cuttlefish

See also

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

WikiProjects

Tasks

Have a look at the Marine life WikiProject and sign up.


Here are some tasks you can do, as organized by The Marine life Wikiproject:

Discover Wikipedia using portals

Purge server cache