Marine Animals

Marine Animals

Learn About Marine Life

About Manatees
About Otters
About Seals
About Sea Lions
About Sea Turtles
About Sharks
About Stingrays / Mantarays
About Walruses
Marine Coloring Pages
Marine Life Photo Gallery
Marine Animal Sounds

Marine Animal Gifts

Dolphin Gifts
Manatee Gifts
Otter Gifts
Seal Gifts
Sea Lion Gifts
Sea Turtle Gifts
Shark Gifts
Stingray Gifts
Walrus Gifts
Whale Gifts

Marine Life Education

Marine Life

The ocean is an amazing place with hundreds of different types of animal species. Take a look at some of the popular marine life.

Marine Life / Marine Animals

The oceans are a vibrant ecosystem, with a variety of life forms. Humans have identified 230,000 marine lifeforms but the actual number is estimated to be at least 10 times greater than that.

Marine animals include: fish, mammals, reptiles, invertebrates and seabirds.

Size: Marine animals cover the gamut from the microscopic zooplanktons to the world's largest whales.

Habitat: The worlds oceans cover two thirds of our planet and the marine biome the largest, as well as most diverse biome in the world. The oceans make up different types of habitats, ranging from freezing polar ice to tropical coral reefs. These habitats all come with their unique challenges, and are inhabited by a wide variety of animals and organisms.

Marine Habitats Include:


Mangroves
(aka Mangrove Forest Biome, Mangrove Swamp and Mangrove Forest) -Mangroves contain a variety of tropical evergreen trees or shrubs that grow in shallow coastal waters. Mangroves live life on the edge. Mangroves half on land and half in the sea. The environment is a challenge for many traditional plants and trees, with excessive heat, choking mud, and extremely high salt levels. Yet the mangroves form one of the most productive and biologically complex ecosystems on Earth.

Sea Grasses: Sea grasses are grass-like flowering plants that live completely submerged in marine and estuarine waters. Most Sea grasses occur in protected bays and lagoons, some will also develop in deeper waters along the continental shelf. The depth at which sea grasses will grow is limited by the water clarity, because most species of sea grass require high levels of light.

Intertidal Zone (aka foreshore, seashore, littoral zone): The intertidal zone is the area that is above water at low tide and under water at high tide. The intertidal zone includes: any different types of habitats, with many types of animals like starfish, clams, mussels, sea urchins, and some species of coral.

Open Ocean (aka Pelagic Zone): The open ocean refers to any part of the ocean except for coastal areas. Different depths of the open ocean lead to different zones. Epipelagic Zone refers to the zone up to 650, this zone is shallow enough that the sun's light can enable photosynthesis for plant life. Next is the Mesopelagic Zone, which has some light and covers from 651-3,300 feet. Next is the Bathypelagic Zone which reaches depths to 13,000 feet. The Abyssopelagic Zone is next reaching more than 13,000 feet depths. The final zone is the Hadopelagic Zone which includes the deep ocean trenches. The Bathypelagic, Abyssopelagic, and Hadopelagic zones are very similar in character, and some marine biologists combine them into a single zone. The Abyssal Plain is covered with soft sludge composed of dead organisms that have settled from above.

Reefs (aka Rainforest of the Sea) : Reefs are made of coral or rocky formations. Coral reefs are one of the most diverse marine habitats. Coral reefs are most commonly found at shallow depths in tropical waters, but deep water and cold water corals also exist on smaller scales in other areas.

Hydrothermal Vents: A hydrothermal vent is a fissure in a planet's surface from which geothermally heated water issues. Hydrothermal vents are essentially underwater geysers created by movement in the tectonic plates. Ocean water enters the cracks in the ocean floor and the water is heated up by the Earth's magma, and then released through the hydrothermal vents, along with minerals such as hydrogen sulfide, which end up forming volcano-like projections on the seafloor.


Marine in Other Languages:

Catalan:
Mari
Czech: Morsky
Dutch: Marien / Maritiem
Finnish: Merellinen / Meri
French: Marin / Maritime
Icelandic: Sjavar
Indonesian: Bahari
Latin: Maritimus / Marinus
Polish: Morski
Portuguese: Maritimo / Marinho
Romanian: Marin / Maritim
Roman: Morski
Slovak: Morsky
Spanish: Maritimo / Marino

Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other bodies of water.

Google+


Sea Otter

Manatee

Seal

Whale

Shark

Sea Lion

Sea Turtle

Marine Animal Gifts

 

Copyright © 2011- 2021 DR Management
All rights reserved


Wild Animal Gifts
:: About Dolphins :: Sea Glass Gifts