Meet the sea butterfly. Unlike most species of zooplankton that occupy the all-important base of the marine food web, this sea snail earned its nickname by behaving more like an insect, fluttering ...

The sea butterfly entered the ship’s wet well and then began producing eggs to be studied for the first time. ... and they are often pink in color, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Let’s hear it for the pteropod, or sea butterfly — the tiny creatures that spend their days drifting aimlessly through the ocean. The bad news: Their days could be numbered. Besides being ...

Sea butterflies flit through the ocean on gossamer wings, each species with a style of its own. These tiny marine snails, or thecosomes, migrate up to surface waters at night to feed and sink to ...

However, the sea butterfly sets itself apart by rotating its body 60 degrees as it performs its power stroke, making sure the weight of its shell doesn't cause it to sink to the bottom of the ocean.

In the first five weeks of the trip, a “sea butterfly” or “delicate pteropod,” was pulled into the icebreaker’s wet well, according to the Australian Antarctic Division.