#marinelifemonday — Public Fediverse posts

It's a chilly #MarineLifeMonday, so it seems appropriate to recognize that #winter here in the Great #Northwest has its perks. On #PugetSound, those perks include #seabirds, like these #grebes and #gulls, which #flock to the protected, food-rich #waters of the #SalishSea. You don't even have to find a remote #shoreline to appreciate these #birds; these were spotted from the #fishing #pier in #Edmonds, just south of a particularly busy #ferry landing in a large #Seattle suburb.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 19

It's appropriate that this #MarineLifeMonday our journey #north reaches the shores of #Hudson'sBay at #Churchill, #Manitoba 🇨🇦. It's here that the largest complete #trilobite #fossil ever found was uncovered from #Ordovician rocks. If you want to see the more than two foot long Isotelus rex in person, head to #Winnipeg's #ManitobaMuseum, where it's displayed in all its splendor.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 12
#MarineLifeMonday

#BritishColumbia's 🇨🇦 #BurgessShale is one of our planet's most important important (and beautiful) #fossil sites. Sitting high in #BC's #RockyMountains, it's a window into the early evolution of #animals. Among its weird wonders is Hallucigenia (seen here in fossil and sculpture form at the #RoyalOntarioMuseum), a distant relative of #arthropods so unlike anything alive today that for years it was reconstructed upside down and backwards.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 5
#MarineLifeMonday

Most #fish species alive today, from #salmon to #guppies, belong to a single group. In the #Devonian, though, many lineages were abundant. #Quebec's 🇨🇦 #ParcNationalDeMiguasha provides a glimpse of this #biodiversity, which includes #lungfish such as Scaumenacia curta, shown here in the #RoyalOntarioMuseum. Their lobed fins contain many of the same #bones as our arms, evidence that lungfish are much more closely related to us than to most other fish.

It's back to the #RockyIntertidal of #Washington's #SanJuanIslands this #MarineLifeMonday, this time to visit an odd #seaweed group. Coralline red #algae are distant relatives of plants, but they're named because they look like some types of #coral. In fact, this similarity is more than skin-deep. Just as coral animals often encase themselves in calcium #carbonate shells, these algae line their cell walls with the same #mineral, making them much more rigid than other #seaweeds.

I'm featuring an ecosystem rather than an organism this #MarineLifeMonday. Lasting for only a short time but providing a bonanza for #DeepSea life, a #whale fall occurs when a whale dies and sinks to the #ocean floor. The carcass provides rare #nutrients for a range of #scavengers, from microscopic bacteria to huge sharks. The whale fall shown here is an artificial one on display at the #MontereyBayAquarium, where spider #crabs, giant #isopods, and jawless #hagfish occupy a #SpermWhale skeleton.