Life Below
The Seahorse Brood Pouch Makes Reproduction More Than a Silhouette
The curved body and gripping tail make a seahorse easy to recognise in an illustration. Its reproductive life asks us to look beyond that familiar outline.
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Life Below
A Hermit Crab’s Shell Has a Previous Owner
A moving shell can briefly look like a snail until legs emerge from the opening. A hermit crab changes the story of the shell: the shelter was made by…
Coastal Connections
A Water Sample Carries DNA Clues, but the Survey Still Needs a Method
Researchers can learn about marine animals from traces of DNA in water, even when the animals are not visible at the sampling moment. The sample is an entry…
Life Below
Baleen Changes the Question You Ask About a Whale’s Meal
A whale’s great size tells us little by itself about how it gathers food. Looking at the feeding structures directs attention toward a process that a…
Life Below
Inside a Barnacle’s Hard Outline Is a Feeding Crustacean
A patch of barnacles can look like part of the rock until water covers it and movement becomes visible. Their hard outlines conceal animals with a very…
Coastal Connections
An Atoll’s Lagoon Helps You Read the Reef as a Shape
A ring of reef around open water tells a different spatial story from a reef growing directly along a shore. Looking at the relationship between reef, land,…
Life Below
The Familiar Jellyfish Bell May Be Only One Stage of the Life Cycle
A bell-shaped jellyfish drifting through water is an easy form to recognise. A life-cycle diagram may introduce a very different-looking attached stage,…
Life Below
An Octopus Changes More Than the Colour of a Flat Surface
An octopus blending into a rough background is doing something more interesting than choosing a matching paint. Its visible appearance involves different…