by AquaNerd | Aug 21, 2016 | Conservation, Fish, Reef, Science
Greenland sharks are now the longest-living vertebrates known on Earth, scientists say. [embedded content] Researchers used radiocarbon dating to determine the ages of 28 of the animals, and estimated that one female was about 400 years old. The team found that the sharks grow at just 1cm a year, and reach sexual maturity at about the age of 150. The research is published in the journal Science. Lead author Julius Nielsen, a marine biologist from the University of Copenhagen, said: “We had our expectations that we were dealing with an unusual animal, but I think everyone doing this research was very surprised to learn the sharks were as old as they were.” The former vertebrate record-holder was a bowhead whale estimated to be 211 years old. But by AquaNerd | Aug 19, 2016 | Fish, Reef, Science
With distinct tubular eyes and a natural glow, two species of bioluminescent deep-sea fish nicknamed “barreleyes” have been identified. The newly described species are part of the family Opisthoproctidae. Barreleye fish are not well-described, due to the rareness and fragility of specimens, the researchers said. These fish are “one of the most peculiar and unknown fish groups in the deep-sea pelagic realm, with only 19 morphologically disparate species,” the scientists wrote in their new study. However, the scientists were able to determine the two newfound species through comparisons of pigment patterns on the fish’s “sole.” This organ, found along the belly of some bioluminescent species, controls the light emitted from a different, internal organ. These two organs give the fish their glowing by AquaNerd | Aug 17, 2016 | Reef, Science
DENVER — Humans aren’t the only species whose members speak to their babies in the womb. Dolphin mamas appear to sing their own name to their unborn calves. New research suggests that dolphin mothers teach their babies a “signature whistle” right before birth and in the two weeks after. Signature whistles are sounds that are made by individual dolphins, which the animals use to identify one another. Calves eventually develop their own signature whistle, but in the first few weeks of life, mothers seem focused on teaching their offspring their signature sound, the scientists said. “It’s been hypothesized that this is part of an imprinting process,” Audra Ames, a doctoral student at the University of Southern Mississippi, said here on Friday (Aug. 5) at the by AquaNerd | Jul 19, 2016 | Equipment, Fish, Reef, Science
This fish, in the little-known family Aphyonidae, was found by a team aboard the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer at a depth of 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) in the Marianas Trench.NOAA OKEANOS EXPLORER On July 10th, NOAA Scientists completed an exploration expedition into the deepest U.S. territorial waters in an area known as the Marianas Trench. The trench is about 1,580 miles (2,550 kilometers) in length with an average width of 43 miles (69 kilometers). The maximum verified depth is 6.831 miles at a small slot-shaped valley in its floor known as the Challenger Deep, at its southern end. To explore these great depths under extreme atmospheric pressure requires special equipment and considerable funding. The expedition was performed with a vessel owned by the National Oceanic and by AquaNerd | May 2, 2016 | Fish, Reef, Science
The muddy plume waters of the Amazon River have been hiding a massive coral reef. You don’t hear a lot of good news about coral reefs these days, so the the discovery of more than 3,600 square miles of undiscovered reef at the mouth of the Amazon River is a pretty big deal. The Atlantic reports researchers in the 1970s caught a few types of fish that indicated a reef might be present along the coast of northeastern Brazil, but it wasn’t taken seriously. The waters at the mouth of the Amazon are some of the muddiest in the world, according to the Guardian. Sediment and other debris from all over South America are rocketed hundreds of miles out to sea, blocking the sunlight believed necessary for
