by AquaNerd | Jan 16, 2016 | Fish, Reef, Science
Paleontologists have discovered the fossil remains of the world’s biggest ocean-dwelling crocodile buried on the edge of the Sahara, a creature that was twice the size of anything seen today. Named Machimosaurus rex, this croc would have weighed in at least 6,600 pounds and been around 32 feet long. Other than its size, it would have looked much like a modern day crocodile except for its narrow snout – which was designed to allow it swim in the ocean. Related: Fossils of 3 new crocodile species found in Peru It would have been the top predator in what was then an ocean that separated Africa from Europe about 130 million years ago. “This is an incredibly big crocodile. It is twice as big as a present day marine by AquaNerd | Jan 15, 2016 | Fish, Reef, Science
Indeed, the future of human habitation, whether through choice or catastrophe, is often imagined (in popular culture at least) as being beyond Earth’s orbit. Sub-aquatic living still seems, perversely it could be argued, very alien. Not so for Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut. He has revealed ambitious plans for a series of underwater eco-villages that could house up to 20,000 people each in the future. His Aequorea project imagines entirely self-sufficient, spiraling “oceanscrapers” reaching to the sea floor from mangrove-covered marinas on the surface of the world’s oceans. Jellyfish-like in appearance, each oceanscraper would be constructed using recycled plastics from the misleadingly named “Seventh Continent”, or Great Pacific Garbage Patch (much of the debris here is believed to be in the form of by AquaNerd | Jan 8, 2016 | Conservation, Fish, Science
A new study found 85% of male smallmouth bass in the Northeast are undergoing a sex change. (AP Photo/Idaho Statesman, Roger Phillips) Male bass are experiencing unwanted sex changes, apparently thanks to the “chemical soups” that pass for waterways in the Northeast. The Washington Post reports 85% of male smallmouth bass surveyed in the region have “characteristics of the opposite sex”—specifically eggs where their testes should be. The same is true of 27% of area largemouth bass, Vice adds. For a recently published study, researchers tested bass near 19 wildlife refuges in the Northeast, according to a US Geological Survey press release. Researchers didn’t do a chemical analysis of the water where the intersex fish were found, so they can’t be sure specifically what is by Lemon T.Y.K | Dec 15, 2015 | Science
While studies and surveys conducted on piscine organisms often involve in situ research on living specimens, a great deal of it occur post mortem. In science, death is the gateway of knowledge, and only in death can an animal be picked apart and studied in depth,... by AquaNerd | Dec 15, 2015 | Corals, Equipment, Events, Fish, Reef, Science, Tanks
From the boat, there’s nothing remarkable about the place — just choppy water and a white mooring ball, a few miles offshore. But once we’re underwater, I can see the rows and rows of PVC trees, suspended above the sand in a grid that stretches away into the distant murk. This is a coral nursery. Each tree bears a ripening crop of a hundred or more pieces of coral. The smallest fragments are pinkie-sized, twirling on their tethers as other divers kick by; the largest hang like many-limbed chandeliers, turning slowly in the current. When I get closer, I can see the individual polyps, the anemone-like creatures that make up each fragmented colony. Nestled in the crenellated openings in their solid skeletons, they
