Marine life for kids

Ocean habitat

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Animals such as seahorses, clownfish, and sea turtles all live on coral reefs. And the corals are animals too!

Animals such as seahorses, clownfish, and sea turtles all live on coral reefs. And the corals are animals too!

Photograph by Levent Konuk, Shutterstock

Earth Underwater

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Photograph by Socrates, Dreamtime

Oceans are areas of salty water that fill enormous basins on the Earth’s surface. Even though Earth has one continuous body of saltwater, scientists and geographers divide it into five different sections. From biggest to smallest, they are the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, the Southern, and the Arctic Oceans.

Oceans are deep as well as wide. On average an ocean is a little over two miles deep. But about 200 miles southwest of Guam in the Pacific Ocean, the water in the Mariana Trench is almost seven miles deep. That’s the deepest part of the ocean.

Climate Control

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Kelp forests provide food and shelter for marine animals.

Photograph by Bryan Toro, Shutterstock

Oceans help keep Earth’s climate habitable. By moving water around the globe, the oceans help to keep places from getting too hot or too cold.

Oceans also help keep the planet warm. In the same way that hot water in a bathtub stays warm longer than hot chocolate in a small cup, the vast amount of warm water stores heat in the ocean. Then ocean currents carry that heat around the planet. Without oceans, the Earth would be an icy rock.

Ocean or Sea?

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Animals such as seahorses, clownfish, and sea turtles all live on coral reefs. And the corals are animals too!

Photograph by Levent Konuk, Shutterstock

The words “ocean” and “sea” are often used to mean the same thing. A sea, however, is a small area of an ocean, usually with land on several sides. The Mediterranean, nestled between Africa and Europe, the Baltic in northern and central Europe, and the Caribbean between North, Central, and South America are all seas.

Ocean Life

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Some giant manta rays have 20-foot wingspans.

Photograph by Michael D. Stubblefield, M.D., iStock

Scientists think that up to 91 percent of marine species have not yet been identified; but there could be as many as 700,000 of them! Most—95 percent—are invertebrates, animals that don’t have a backbone, such as jellyfish and shrimp. The most common vertebrate (an animal with a backbone) on Earth is the bristlemouth, a tiny ocean fish that glows in the dark and has needlelike fangs.

Some of the smallest animals on Earth can be found in the ocean. Sea animals like zooplankton are so small you can see them only with a microscope. Big fish swim through these waters too, such as great white sharks, manta rays, and ocean sunfish.

The largest animal ever to live on Earth is an ocean mammal called the blue whale. It’s as long as two school buses! Dolphins, porpoises, and sea lions are also ocean-dwelling mammals.

The ocean teems with plant life. Most are tiny algae called phytoplankton—and these microscopic plants have a big job. Through photosynthesis, they produce about half of the oxygen that humans and other land-dwelling creatures breathe. Bigger algae like seaweed and kelp also grow in the ocean and provide food and shelter for marine animals.

Watery Habitats

Temperature, ocean depth, and distance from the shore determine the types of plants and animals living in an area of the ocean. These regions are called habitats.

Coral reefs are one type of habitat. When tiny animals called polyps die, their skeletons harden so other polyps can live on top of them. Then those polyps die, and more move in. After thousands of years, this becomes a complex structure called a coral reef that provides food and shelter for many kinds of ocean animals. In fact, corals reefs have been called the rainforests of the sea because of the wide variety of animals found there. Animals such as seahorses, clownfish, and sea turtles all live on coral reefs. And corals themselves are animals! They grab food from the water using tiny tentacle-like arms.

Kelp forests found along the coastlines of the Pacific and Antarctic Oceans also provide food and shelter for marine life. These large, brown, rubbery plants have hollow, globe-shaped growths on the leaves called pneumatocysts that help the plants rise to the surface. Sea lions, whales, shore birds, and other ocean animals make meals of the smaller critters that hide in the leaves.

Other ocean habitats aren’t actually in the ocean, such as estuaries. Estuaries are areas where rivers and oceans meet and have a mix of saltwater and freshwater. Oysters, crabs, and many birds like great herons and egrets live in estuaries.

Scientists estimate that we’ve only explored 5 percent of the ocean. Maybe you’ll be the next person to discover a new species of fish or a deeper underwater trench!

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Ocean Animal Facts for Kids

Home > Water Facts for Kids, Teachers and Students > Ocean Animal Facts for Kids

This web page contains ocean animal facts for kids and is an excellent resource for anyone of any age looking to learn about animals in the ocean. Our goal is to provide you with accurate, up to date facts about ocean animals. In addition to facts about ocean animal, we provide additional resources to help you with your research on these marine animals.

The ocean animal facts below will help you learn about the different kinds of ocean animal, how many ocean animals there are, where many of the ocean animals live and other ocean animal related facts. We hope these ocean animal facts are interesting and help you learn more about this group of marine species.

If any of the below ocean animal facts are inaccurate, please contact us and let us know.

23 Ocean Animal Facts for Kids

1. Ocean animals are organisms that live in the ocean.
2. Ocean animals are also referred to as marine life, ocean life or sea life.
3. Ocean animals include animals, plants and other various organisms.
4. The size of ocean animals varies greatly, some are microscope, while others are enormous.
5. There are an estimated 230,000 known marine species. However, marine biologists believe there could be up to two million total marine species in the oceans.
6. Some estimates claim over 99% of all living species are found in the ocean.
7. Ocean animals first appeared between 3 and 3.5 billion years ago, the first land animals appeared around 400 million years ago. That means ocean life dominated the planet for about 3 billion years.
8. Marine microorganisms include viruses, bacteria, archaea and protists.
9. A few examples of marine microorganisms are cyanobacteria and Thiomargarita namibiensis.
10. Marine aquatic plants include any species in the plantae kingdom that lives in the ocean.


11. A few examples of marine aquatic plants are kelp and seagrass.
12. Marine fish include gill-bearing aquatic craniate animals that live in the ocean.
13. A few examples of marine fish are sailfish, mahi-mahi and the great white shark.
14. Marine birds include any avian species that has adapted to a marine environment.
15. A few examples of marine birds are penguins, pelicans and albatrosses.
16. Marine mammals are ocean animals that live in the ocean and have lungs that obtain air from the surface.
17. A few examples of marine mammals are whales and dolphins.
18. Cyanobacteria, a marine microorganism, is one of the oldest known lifeforms. It’s estimated that cyanobacteria appeared around 3.5 billion years ago.
19. The jellyfish, a marine invertebrate, is older than the dinosaurs. It’s estimated that jellyfish first appeared between 500 and 700 million years ago.
20. The seahorse, a marine invertebrate, is the only known living animal species where the male gives birth to offspring instead of the female.
21. The blue whale, a marine mammal, is the heaviest organism on the plant with an average weight of 121 tons.
22. Neptune grass, a marine aquatic plant, is one of the oldest living organisms on our planet. There is a colony in the Mediterranean Sea near Ibiza, Spain that is estimated to be at least 12,000 years old.
23. Ocean animals are found at all depths of the ocean, include in the Mariana Trench. The very bottom of the Mariana Trench is 36,037 feet. A snailfish was found and filmed in the Mariana Trench at a depth of 26,800 feet.

Pictures of Ocean Animals

A picture of an octopus.

A picture of a blue marlin.

A picture of a sea turtle.

A picture of a sea lion.

A picture of a dolphin.

A picture of a whale.

Additional Resources on Ocean Animals

• Marine Life Encyclopedia – Explore all of the different types of marine life on the Oceana website.
• Ocean Habitat Facts and Photos – Find facts and photos of the habitats used by ocean animals on the Kids National Geographic website.
• Strange Ocean Animals – Discover some of the strangest animals living in the ocean on the Popular Mechanics website.
• Marine Life – Wikipedia – Learn more about marine life in the ocean on the Wikipedia website.

Sea Life Aquarium London

Greater London, UK

Being in London, especially with children, it is simply impossible to pass by the Sea Life Aquarium. The huge aquarium is located on three floors of a majestic six-story building on the south bank of the Thames in the heart of London. It is worth noting that the building itself is quite remarkable. Built in 1922 in the Edwardian Baroque style, designed by Ralph Knott, today it houses not only an aquarium, but also hotels, shops and restaurants. Opposite stands Big Ben, next to the famous Ferris wheel - the "Eye of London" and the gallery "Tate Modern". nine0007 Sea Life is one of the largest aquariums in Europe. Two million liters of water contain about three thousand species of marine animals and plants. The aquarium consists of 14 different reservoirs, of which the most popular are: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian Ocean waters. The reservoirs filled with water are as close as possible to the usual conditions of the habitat of fish in the corresponding regions of the planet. If you wish, you can not only listen to a course of lectures about the amazing marine world, but also participate in feeding fish, as well as scuba diving. Of course, visitors always have favorites among animals - here they are penguins, sharks and rays. A colony of gentoo penguins invariably attracts the attention of both adults and children. Gentoo are the fastest of the waterfowl penguins and the third largest after the emperor and king. "Shark Walk" allows visitors standing on a transparent platform to view predators right under their feet. Children almost lie down on the glass floor watching sixteen sharks glide. For a fee, the aquarium offers the most daring spectators to be underwater among the sharks - with a mask, snorkel and under the supervision of experienced instructors. Much less extreme pleasure can be obtained at the outdoor pool with stingrays - they are allowed to be stroked, the children are delighted with this. Other inhabitants of the aquarium also undoubtedly deserve attention - Cuban crocodiles, green sea turtles, piranhas, seahorses, jellyfish, squids, octopuses. At the entrance to the aquarium there is a feeding schedule for the inhabitants, following which you can watch the divers feeding their pets - this spectacular spectacle always attracts a lot of spectators. nine0007 The most popular London Aquarium will give you the opportunity to see unusual, sometimes funny, sometimes even terrifying sea creatures and learn a lot about their amazing life.

Source:

https://tury.ru

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• nine0042 Norwich Art Gallery and Museum
• Exhibition Center Forum
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