As terrestrial creatures, humans are largely unaware that much of life's history has taken place in the ocean. Indeed, life had been evolving and changing for more than 3 billion years—the …

At Smithsonian Ocean, we have lesson plans, activities, and resources to help you engage your students in the wonders of our oceans.

They tell not only an evolutionary story — the family tree of life — but also how these creatures used to live. Fossils can be found throughout the geologic history of earth , going back billions …

Evidence shows that life probably began in the ocean at least 3.5 billion years ago. Photosynthesis began more than 2.5 billion years ago—the Great Oxidation Event. But it took …

Scientists, such as paleontologists Louis Jacobs, Michael J. Polcyn and their team at Southern Methodist University, along with scientists in Angola, Portugal and the Netherlands, study the …

“She sells sea shells by the sea shore.” Remember this grade school tongue-twister? What you probably didn’t know is that this nursery rhyme is based on a real person who not only sold …

Anatomy, Diversity, and Evolution Anatomy. Numerous characteristics are unique to the coelacanth among living fishes. Among them is the presence of a "rostral organ" in the snout …

In 2022, researchers finally tracked a group of migrating eels to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in an area known as the Sargasso Sea. The mystery of the eel can be traced back to ancient …

Though they largely live in the deep ocean today, during the Cambrian through the Permian, crinoid forests covered parts of the seafloor. Known as sea lilies for their beautiful, feathered …

The megalodon was a fearsome predator. As the largest predator of the time, it ate a diverse array of prey including toothed and baleen whales, seals, sea cows, and sea turtles. As an …