Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 29, 2023

Watch rare footage of a shapeshifting eel with 'remarkably full tummy' swimming in the deep sea

Ocean explorers recently stumbled upon an extremely unusual sight in the Pacific's deep sea — a rare, shapeshifting gulper eel with its most recent meal still clearly visible in its stomach. The pelican eel (Eurypharynx pelecanoides), also known as a gulper eel, was spotted June 20 by researchers on board...

Jul 16, 2023

Why do deep-sea fish look like aliens?

Many of the fish lurking in the depths of the ocean resemble the alien villains of horror films, with gargantuan teeth, glow-in-the-dark bodies and bulging eyeballs. But why do these fish have such otherworldly features? The bizarre appearance of deep-sea fish is largely a reflection of the extreme environment they...

Jul 21, 2023

Rare piranha-like fish with 'human teeth' caught by young angler in Oklahoma

A young boy in Oklahoma has caught a bizarre, piranha-like fish with eerily human-like teeth hidden behind its fishy lips. Charlie Clinton caught the exotic fish, known as a pacu, in his neighborhood pond on the weekend of July 15, according to a Facebook post from the Oklahoma Department of...

Jul 27, 2023

Swordfish missing circle-shaped chunks of flesh hauled in by fishers. What bit it?

Fishers in Australia have hauled in a swordfish covered in dozens of strange, circular wounds following a shark pack attack. Tony TK Walker and his crew were fishing off the northeastern coast in the Coral Sea when they reeled in the large fish and soon identified the wounds as cookiecutter...

Aug 5, 2023

Barreleye fish: The deep-sea weirdo with rotating eyes and a see-through head

Name: Barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma) Where it lives: The Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean, between 2,000 and 2,600 feet (600 and 800 meters) deep What it eats: Zooplankton and small crustaceans called copepods Why it's awesome: As their name suggests, barreleye fish have really weird tubular eyes that they...

Aug 18, 2023

Bizarre, alien-like creature discovered deep in Atlantic Ocean has 20 gangly arms

Researchers have discovered an otherworldly, 20-tentacled creature lurking in the freezing depths of the Antarctic Ocean. Resembling an alien or a Lovecraftian horror, the Antarctic strawberry feather star (Promachocrinus fragarius) is one of four new species of crinoids that scientists found at the bottom of the ocean. Crinoids are a...

Aug 18, 2023

Ultra-black eels that stalk the ocean's midnight zone all have the same strange skin and scientists now know why

Ultra-black eels keep independently evolving in the deep sea, and researchers now think they know why — as camouflage to lure prey closer with their glowing tails before engulfing them in their terrifying mouths. The discovery, made by analyzing eels from the clade Anguilloidei (which includes freshwater eels, spaghetti eels...

Aug 19, 2023

West Indian Ocean coelacanth: The once-'extinct' Lazarus fish that can live for 100 years

Name: West Indian Ocean coelacanth or African coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae), known as 'gombessa' in the Comoros Islands Where it lives: Off the east coast of Africa What it eats: A variety of fish and cephalopods, including squid and cuttlefish. Why it's awesome: Scientists thought all coelacanths went extinct over 65...

Aug 24, 2023

Color-changing hogfish use their skin to 'see' themselves — even after they're dead

Hogfish are the chameleons of the Atlantic Ocean, seamlessly changing their skin color depending on their environment. As if those morphing skills weren't impressive enough, these reef dwellers can also see with their skin with the help of special light-sensing cells, even after they die, according to a study published...

Sep 20, 2023

'True rarity': Gigantic alligator gar caught and released in Texas reservoir could break 2 world records

Anglers recently reeled in a massive 283-pound (128 kilograms) alligator gar after a nearly three-hour tussle on a Texas reservoir, before releasing it back into the murky waters. Experts claim the extraordinary catch could smash a pair of world records dating back to 1951. Art Weston caught the gigantic gar...

Sep 22, 2023

World's oldest aquarium fish 'Methuselah' could be decades older than we originally thought, DNA clock reveals

The world's oldest aquarium fish, a lungfish named Methuselah, may actually be decades older than researchers originally thought and may even be over 100 years old, a new study finds. Methuselah is a female Australian lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri) that resides at Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco, California. She first arrived...

Sep 23, 2023

Pacific lamprey: The jawless fish that survived 4 mass extinctions and sucks prey dry of blood and body fluids

Name: Pacific lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus) Where it lives: Freshwater and marine ecosystems in the North Pacific, from California to Alaska, and across the Bering Sea to Russia and Japan What it eats: The blood and body fluids of other fish, including Pacific salmon, flatfish, rockfish and Pacific hake Why it's...

Sep 30, 2023

Why is fish so smelly?

Fish are notorious for their strong — and sometimes unpleasant — odor. But what causes that distinctly fishy smell, and is there a way to avoid it while cooking? Fish odor is the result of microbial and chemical reactions that occur as fish proteins and fats are exposed to heat...

Oct 25, 2023

Nightmarish deep-sea footballfish washes up on California beach in rare stranding

A ghoulish, pitch-black fish with a long stalk on its head recently washed up on a beach in Southern California — the second of its kind to end up onshore there in recent years, Crystal Cove State Park officials announced Oct. 17. Experts identified the bizarre-looking animal as a female...

Nov 15, 2023

Watch a super-rare dreamer anglerfish with ultra-black 'invisibility cloak' swim like a shadow in the deep sea

Scientists recently filmed a super-rare, ultra-black anglerfish lurking like a living shadow in the deep sea off the California coastline. Researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) spotted the unidentified species of dreamer anglerfish (genus Oneirodes) on Sept. 29. They filmed it 2,562 feet (781 meters) below the...