When most of us picture the ocean, we imagine turquoise waves, colorful reefs, and shoals of darting fish. But that’s only the surface. Venture deeper, far below the last reach of sunlight, and you ...

Dynamic mounds made of methane at a depth of some 3,640 meters act like “frozen reefs” for a bizarre array of deep-sea ...

A lot of weird-looking life-forms lurk in the deep sea, and this year we got some spectacularly close looks at several of ...

A newly discovered predatory “death-ball” sponge in the Southern Ocean hunts small prey with tiny hooks, revealing surprising deep-sea behaviour and hidden marine biodiversity.

Lanice spongicola lives on a glass sponge, a deep-sea sponge with a skeleton made of silica, that rises from hard rock. The ...

Sea creatures have adapted to help them thrive in extreme environments. Unusual features allow them to live thousands of feet below the surface. Underwater robots give researchers a glimpse at some of ...

Meet the “ghost fish,” a phantom of the abyss. Here’s how we found the first ever proof of its existence just a few years ago. The deep sea is a part of the world that very few humans get the chance ...

These three fish are freaks, phantoms and mysteries of the deep. Here’s what we’ve learned from the rare glimpses we’ve had of their lives. The deep sea is one of Earth’s final frontiers. Given its ...

Thousands of meters below the ocean's surface lurk some gigantic creatures, much larger than their shallow-water brethren. Scientists have a few hunches for why this happens, but the debate continues.

Whether it's reversible anuses or exploding intestines, the natural world proves that internal body parts shouldn't always ...