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Categories: Archaeology: General, Biology: Marine

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Corals play an essential role in ocean ecosystems, and like many organisms, they are under threat from climate change and other human activities. To better protect coral, it's first necessary to understand them, in particular their reproductive life cycle, which only happens once a year. For the first time, researchers have produced a model for coral spawning, based on various environmental factors. They achieved this by tapping an often overlooked source of aquatic knowledge, an aquarium.

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A team of scientists has used artificial intelligence (AI) to map the activities of seafloor invertebrate animals, such as worms, clams and shrimps, across all the oceans of the world.

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While most organisms have biological clocks synchronized with the day-night cycle (circadian rhythms), marine animals in tidal areas have also developed circatidal rhythms to align with the tidal cycle. Comparing the activity and genetic expression of snails from tidal and non-tidal areas, researchers demonstrate that circatidal rhythms develop as snails adapt to tidal environments. These findings highlight the flexibility of biological clocks, enabling organisms to adjust their rhythms according to the environment.

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Researchers compare the shield shapes of crabs and find unexpected differentiation.

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Constantly on the hunt for food: Harbor porpoises more vulnerable than previously thought to the disturbances from humans. The small whales spend more than 60 percent of their day hunting small fish to stay warm in the cold waters. New research shows that harbor porpoises spend little energy on this hunting strategy, but that it makes them vulnerable to human disturbance.

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Members of the vertebrate group including anglerfishes are unique in possessing a characteristic known as sexual parasitism, in which males temporarily attach or permanently fuse with females to mate. Now, researchers show that sexual parasitism arose during a time of major global warming and rapid transition for anglerfishes from the ocean floor to the deep, open sea.

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A new study predicts future climate change impacts could disrupt the krill-heavy diet that humpback whales in the southern hemisphere consume.

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Thousands of years ago, early hunter-gatherers returned regularly to Tagua Tagua Lake in Chile to hunt ancient elephants and take advantage of other local resources, according to a new study.

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A 3,500-year-old suit of Mycenaean armour may have been used in battle -- and not just for ceremonial purposes as previously thought -- new research reveals.

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The discovery of thousands of stone artefacts and animal bones in a deep cave in Timor Island has led archaeologists to reassess the route that early humans took to reach Australia. Researchers dated and analysed the artefacts and sediment at the Laili rock shelter in central-north Timor-Leste, north of Australia, to pinpoint the arrival of the colonists.

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Many processes in the deep sea are not yet well understood, and the role of microbial communities in particular is often a big unknown. This includes, for example, how organic material that sinks from the water surface to the ocean floor is metabolised -- an important building block for a better understanding of the global carbon cycle.

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A recent boom in the purple sea urchin population off the southern Oregon Coast appears to have had an indirect and negative impact on the gray whales that usually forage in the region, a new study shows.

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Using citizen science, photographs, on-water observations and the combination of morphological and genetic data, researchers have provided evidence that the Atlantic cownose ray has recently made a new home in Bermuda. Results show that after hundreds of years of natural history records, this is a novel migration of Atlantic cownose rays to Bermuda.

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Horses crossed the Baltic Sea in ships during the Late Viking Age and were sacrificed for funeral rituals. Studies on the remains of horses found at ancient burial sites in Russia and Lithuania show that they were brought overseas from Scandinavia utilizing expansive trade networks connecting the Viking world with the Byzantine and Arab Empires. Up to now, researchers had believed sacrificial horses were always locally-sourced stallions. But these results reveal horses from modern Sweden or Finland traveled up to 1,500 km across the Baltic Sea. The findings also show that the sex of the horse was not necessarily a factor in them being chosen for sacrifice, with genetic analysis showing one in three were mares.

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Marine microbes control the flux of matter and energy essential for life in the oceans. Among them, the bacterial group SAR11 accounts for about a third of all the bacteria found in surface ocean waters. A study now reveals that at times nearly 20% of SAR11 cells are infected by viruses, significantly reducing total cell numbers. The viruses can also transform these once thriving bacteria into zombies, a phenomenon observed for the first time and widespread in the oceans.

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The deep-sea Venus flower basket sponge can filter feed using only the faint ambient currents of the ocean depths, no pumping required, new research reveals. This discovery of natural 'zero energy' flow control could help engineers design more efficient chemical reactors, air purification systems, heat exchangers, hydraulic systems, and aerodynamic surfaces.

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The patterns of dispersal of early humans across continents and islands are hotly debated, but researchers have found that Pleistocene hunter-gatherers settled in Cyprus thousands of years earlier than previously thought. In examining the timing of the first human occupation of Cyprus, research found that large islands in the Mediterranean Sea were attractive and favorable destinations for palaeolithic peoples. These findings refute previous studies that suggested Mediterranean islands would have been unreachable and inhospitable for Pleistocene hunter-gatherer societies.

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Sea otters are one of the few animals that use tools to access their food, and a new study has found that individual sea otters that use tools -- most of whom are female -- are able to eat larger prey and reduce tooth damage when their preferred prey becomes depleted.

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Scientists have discovered that colonies of gelatinous sea animals swim through the ocean in giant corkscrew shapes using coordinated jet propulsion, an unusual kind of locomotion that could inspire new designs for efficient underwater vehicles.

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A new study has confirmed a long-held assumption: that orcas take just one breath between dives. The researchers used drone footage and biological data from tags suction-cupped to 11 northern and southern resident killer whales off the coast of B.C. to gather information on the animals' habits. Confirming orcas take only one breath between dives allowed the researchers to calculate how many litres of oxygen adults and juveniles consume per minute. This provides another piece of the puzzle in estimating orca energy expenditure, and eventually, how many fish the animals need to eat per day, key to their conservation.