She was born during the reign of James I, was a youngster when René Descartes set out his rules of thought and the great fire of London raged, saw out her adolescent years as George II ascended the throne, reached adulthood around the time that the American revolution kicked off, and lived through two world wars. Living to an estimated age of nearly 400 years, a female Greenland shark has set a new record for longevity, scientists have revealed.
And you’ll never guess how old she has to be before reaching sexual maturity…
A Beluga whale has become a sensation at an aquarium after learning how to blow halo-shaped bubbles. The extraordinary sight was captured on camera by photographer Hiroya Minakuchi at the Shimane aquarium in Japan. He said: “This beluga started making bubble rings when she was seven. And a couple of years ago she developed her technique. Now she blows the water from her mouth to make a current, which is not visible for us underwater. She then blows air from her blow hole into the current and that makes a ring shape.”
Pretty little polychaetes who bury their several-metre-long bodies in the ground and wait until something brushes up against one of their antennae. They then snap their venomous mandibles shut so fast they sometimes scissor their prey right in half
Most plankton are tiny drifters, wandering in a vast ocean. But where wind and currents converge they become part of a grander story… an explosion of vitality that affects all life on Earth, including our own. Watch the latest “Deep Look” video from KQED and pbsdigitalstudios:
