Marine Biology Fun Facts Trivia Quiz

Answer: plankton

It's true! Phytoplankton, to be exact, produce 9 times more oxygen than all the trees, shrubs, and grasses on the planet COMBINED! Mollusks are soft-bodied organisms like clams, oysters, sea slugs, and squids. Zoea are baby crabs and shrimp.

Answer: whales

Dolphins belong to the order Cetacea (which includes whales, dolphins and porpoises), and the suborder Odontoceti which means "toothed whale." All organisms are classified by Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species. This helps scientists all over the world identify different organisms, and be able to compare species in different locations.

Answer: fish

Seahorses are related to pipefish and seadragons. If you look closely, you can see that they have gills and fins just like any fish. Their mouths are heavily modified to eat only very tiny shrimp and other animal plankton known as zooplankton.

Answer: animals

Hard to believe, but yes they are classified in the animal kingdom (phylum porifera). Although they don't have a heart or brain the way we do, they have a complex network of pores and tunnels, kind of like our circulatory system. They pump water from the outside environment through these tunnels and filter out small organisms and nutrients for food. FUN FACT: If you were to put a specific type of sponge (class demospongae) in a blender and blend it up it would reform into its original shape! No other organism can do that!

Answer: spined

Even though they belong to this classification, sea cucumbers are actually soft-spined, and only have the appearance of being painful. All of these organisms have either hard or soft plates in their skin. They do not have brains or hearts either, but they do have a complex stomach system and a "nerve net" to help them respond to the environment. FUN FACT: Did you know that starfish actually turn their stomachs inside out to eat their prey outside of their bodies?

Answer: True

Wrasses are known to do this. The dominant female will actually undergo a biological change from female to male when the male in charge dies. These fish live mainly in groups with only one male and many females, so when the male dies, another one must take his place. Although, once the female changes, she can't change back.

Answer: coral reef

The Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia covers a distance of over 2,600 km (1,600 miles)! Coral reefs are created by coral polyps, relatives of jellyfish, who grow in large colonies and build large skeletons out of calcium carbonate. Corals cannot move to hunt for food, and must have an odd type of algae (called zooxanthellae, pronounced zo-zan-thell-ie) live INSIDE them in order to get enough food to survive. Without the coral,the zooxanthellae would be exposed to predators, and without the zooxanthellae, the corals starve.

Answer: giant squid

The giant squid, now officially caught on film, has an eye the size of a dinner plate! Before the Japanese scientists released the video footage, the only specimens recovered were dead squids that would wash up on shores. Proof of the squids' existence were visible in the form of sucker scars along the heads and bodies of sperm whales. Since sperm whales dive deeper than any other whale for food, they were the only ones to encounter the deep water giant squids.

Answer: cephalopod

Pintel: "That's an enormous fish!"
Rigetti: "Actually, it's a cephalopod"
This is an excerpt of dialog from the film in which the hapless comedic duo encounter the Kraken on the beach. It's my favorite quote from the movie!
Cephalopod, meaning "head-foot", refers to all squid and octopuses. All mollusks (clams, snails, squids, etc) have a muscular "foot." For example, snails are gastropods, meaning "stomach-foot", which refers to the fact that their foot is located on their stomach. The "foot" of the octopus is located on its head!

Answer: Yes

The marine iguanas of the Galapagos are true reptiles who dive into the surf for food. They sun themselves on the rocky shores of the islands to get warm, and then dive back in for more food. Males can grow to as big as 1.5m (~5ft) and the much smaller females only grow to 0.6m (~2ft).