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Animals with long, skinny bodies are often called “worms,” but there are many kinds of worms—even in the ocean. Annelids (segmented worms) include garden earthworms, but their ocean relatives come in many colors, shapes, and sizes. Some are so small that they live between grains of sand, while others can be longer than a human and eat fish! Marine worms are essential to the ocean food web, as both predators and prey. They help create homes for plants and animals by burrowing and building tubes in ocean sediments. Scientists are still discovering new worm species, and there are still many mysteries about how worms eat, why they live in the places they do, and what roles they play in ocean ecosystems. Worms are a fascinating and important part of ocean communities.
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This content will become publicly available on May 24, 2026
What cool fish live in icy Antarctica?
The Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica is one of the coldest on earth and hovers freezing temperatures year-round. What fish can live in such a frigid environment? In this short scientific graphic novel, What cool fish live in icy Antarctica?, Isabel Lopez, John Postlethwait and Thomas Desvignes present the history of Antarctica and how it became the icy continent. These glacial conditions prevented most fish species from living there, but one group, the notothenioids, evolved a way to survive and even thrive in the ice-cold Antarctic waters. They diversified from the surface to the dark depths of the ocean, from being just a few centimeters long to extremely large, and in many other surprising ways. And among them, the white-blooded icefishes are also certainly some of the strangest fish on the planet! But today, Antarctica is changing fast, raising concerns about the survival of these unique fish.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2232891
- PAR ID:
- 10615177
- Publisher / Repository:
- Zenodo
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Fish diversity Antarctic fish Notothenioid
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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