Portal:Marine life

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The Marine Life Portal

Marine life is concerned with the plants, animals and other organisms that live in the ocean. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather than on taxonomy. For this reason marine life encompasses not only organisms that can only live in a marine environment, but also those that lives revolve around the sea.

At a fundamental level, marine life helps determine the very nature of our planet. Marine organisms produce much of the oxygen we breathe and probably help regulate the earth's climate. Shorelines are in part shaped and protected by marine life, and some marine organisms even help create new land.

Marine biology covers a great deal, from the microscopic, including plankton and phytoplankton, which can be as small as 0.02 micrometres and are both hugely important as the primary producers of the sea, to the huge cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) which reach up to a reported 33 metres (109 feet) in length.

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The oceanic whitetip shark, Carcharhinus longimanus, is a large pelagic shark of tropical and warm temperate seas. It is a stocky shark, most notable for its long, white tipped rounded fins.

This aggressive but slow-moving fish dominates feeding frenzies, and has attacked more humans than all other shark species combined — it is a notable danger to survivors of oceanic ship wrecks and downed aircraft. Recent studies have shown that its numbers are in steep decline — its large fins are highly valued as the chief ingredient of shark-fin soup and, as with other shark species, the oceanic whitetip faces mounting pressure from fishing throughout its range.

The oceanic whitetip shark was first described by naturalist Rene Primevere Lesson in his account of observations made during Louis Duperrey's 1822–1825 circumnavigation of the world on the corvette Coquille. Lesson described two specimens found in the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia, and named the shark Squalus maou after a Polynesian word for "shark". However, Lesson's description and name were forgotten.

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Sir John Murray (March 3, 1841–March 16, 1914) was a pioneering Scots-Canadian oceanographer and marine biologist.

Murray was born on 3 March 1841, at Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, to Scottish parents who had emigrated seven years earlier. He returned to Scotland to study, firstly at Stirling High School, and then at the University of Edinburgh, but soon left to join a whaling expedition to Spitsbergen as ships' surgeon in 1868.

He returned to Edinburgh to complete his studies in geology under Sir Archibald Geikie and natural philosophy under Peter Guthrie Tait. Tait introduced Murray to Charles Wyville Thomson who had been appointed to lead the Challenger Expedition. In 1872, Murray joined Wyville Thomson as his assistant on this four-year expedition to explore the deep oceans of the globe. After Wyville Thompson succumbed to the stress of publishing the reports of the Challenger Expedition, Murray took over, and edited and published over 50 volumes of reports, which were completed in 1896. He was knighted (K.C.B) in 1898. Murray was killed when his car overturned near his home on March 16 1914 at Kirkliston, Edinburgh, and he is buried at the nearby Dean Kirkyard.

Did you know...

Triggerfishes are the brightly coloured fishes of the family Balistidae.

Marked by lines and spots, they inhabit warm coastal waters of the Atlantic, Mediterranean and the Indo-Pacific.

Marbled hatchetfish are the only known fish that can actually fly by jumping into the air and moving their fins.

The sea otter often keeps a stone tool in its armpit pouch.

Some cichlid fish, crocodiles and frogs keep their eggs or young in their mouths or stomachs.

The Horseshoe crab has blue, copper based blood.

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Have a look at the Marine life WikiProject and sign up.

Here are some tasks you can do, as organized by The Marine life Wikiproject:

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Copyedit/extensive work: Ctenophore
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Requests: Caesioperca, Caprodon, Plectranthias, Lepidoperca
Stubs: Heteractis magnifica, Sea apple, Tube-dwelling anemone
Other: See the projects page
Images: Upload any non-copyrighted marine life images to WikiPedia Commons
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Photo credit: Raul654

Cuttlefish are sometimes called the chameleon of the sea because of their remarkable ability to rapidly alter their skin colour at will. Their skin flashes a fast-changing pattern as communication to other cuttlefish and to camouflage them from predators.

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