Marine animals have spent hundreds of millions of years evolving short protein fragments that fight microbes, calm inflammation, and tame tumors. A new review in the Chinese Journal of Natural Medicines maps how researchers are finally catching up: extracting these peptides at scale, decoding their structures with high-resolution mass spectrometry, and using AI to predict which ones might become drugs. The global market for marine peptides already tops USD 310 million, and the authors argue the next wave of therapies for hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and drug-resistant infections may come from the bottom of the food chain.

In tetrapods with a "neck," head stability is achieved by contracting and relaxing neck muscles. Whether head stabilization exists in fish, which lack a "neck," was previously unknown. The research group discovered for the first time that fish can also stabilize their heads against tilting, and identified the neural circuits and muscles responsible for this behavior. The neural circuit architecture underlying head stabilization in fish shares features with that governing neck-based head stabilization in tetrapods, suggesting this research may shed light on the evolutionary origins of head stabilization behavior and the morphological neck.

Seagrass meadows are critical habitats which need conservation — and research shows that for one particularly important species of seagrass, Amphibolis antarctica, this could be as simple as collecting their free-floating baby seedlings and replanting them. By scuba-diving to observe wild meadows scientists have now learned that it reproduces sexually, producing seedlings which are new genetic individuals rather than clones of the parent plant. This boosts the plants’ genetic diversity, giving them the best possible chance of surviving disease, heatwaves, and other threats. We can restore healthy meadows and protect biodiversity by giving these seedlings somewhere to settle down.  

A collaborative research team led by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST),  the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOZ-CAS) and the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (GML) has revealed the long-overlooked carbon storage potential of coral reef ecosystems and how reef-dwelling fish, corals, and surface sediments jointly shape reef carbon reservoirs.

A new study from Adelaide University has found that when ocean acidification makes reef habitat less complex, the fish living there gather in smaller shoals that offer less social protection.

There’s a new T. rex in the fossil record, only this one terrorized the ancient seas. New research uncovers a new, massive species of mosasaur, a marine reptile that lived during the age of the dinosaurs. One of the largest mosasaurs known to date—stretching up to 43 feet long—this top predator was described from 80-million-year-old fossils that were found primarily in northern Texas decades ago. It was named Tylosaurus rex, or T. rex for short, meaning “king of the tylosaurs.”

Some beluga whales appear to recognize themselves in a mirror, per a case study of captive whales which may provide the first evidence of mirror self-recognition in the species

A new study from the University of Copenhagen shows that marine heatwaves can disrupt microscopic moving structures on the surface of reef-building corals that support their oxygen uptake. When seawater temperature crosses a critical threshold, this oxygen supply mechanism collapses, increasing the risk of coral death.