Three species of cirrate octopod are reported from deep-sea collections around the coasts of Greenland and Iceland in the North Atlantic. Twenty-one specimens of Stauroteuthis syrtensis were caught from east and west Greenland at depths of 258–1321 m, representing a considerable geographic and bathymetric extension of the range. Nine specimens of a putative new species of the genus Opisthoteuthis are reported, and are the first records of this genus in the area. Nineteen specimens of the circum-Arctic species Cirroteuthis muelleri add significantly to our knowledge of the distribution this species. Latitudinal patterns in the bathymetric distribution of C. muelleri and S. syrtensis suggest temperature is the principal controlling factor.

The shape of foregut lumen in both the pharyngeal and the oesophageal regions has been examined from serial histological sections in 16 species of pycnogonids covering all extant families. Each species has a Y-shaped foregut lumen in transverse section. This result shows that some previous authors misoriented the lumen as inverted Y-shaped. The triradiate Y-shaped foregut lumen has been found among ecdysozoans including tardigrades, onychophorans and scatteringly arthropods. At present, it is not clear whether the Y-shaped state of the characteristic in pycnogonids is convergent or symplesiomorphy with that in tardigrades and onychophorans.

Wood-boring bivalves of the families Teredinidae and Pholadidae are reported for the first time in Paraíba State, north-east Brazil. During one year, molluscs were collected from mangrove tree logs and from wood panels, along a salinity gradient. Four teredinid (Neoteredo reynei, Teredo bartschi, Nausitora fusticula, Bankia fimbriatula) and one pholad species (Martesia striata) were found.

The present study demonstrated histochemically that the enzyme activity was present in the cerebral vesicle, epidermis, muscles, endostyle and anus of amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri tsingtaunese. This is the first noted report on localization of constitutive nitric oxide synthases in a celphalochordate.

Spatial distribution patterns of two small serranids, Serranus scriba and S. cabrilla, have been investigated in  June 2001 in north-eastern Sardinia (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy). Density and size of both species were estimated by visual census on shallow (5–7 m) rocky reefs constituted by different mineralogical types (granites vs carbonates), at different locations (several kilometres apart from each other) and sites (hundreds of metres from each other). Serranus scriba was significantly more abundant on granite rocks (where it also showed a greater frequency of large specimens) than on carbonates, while S. cabrilla displayed opposite patterns.

The occurrence, meristic, length frequency, condition factor, length–weight relationship and day/night differences in catch are reported for a population of cuskeel Ophidionrochei at Duće-Glava (43°26′N 16°41′E, Croatian coast, eastern middle Adriatic) from April 2000 to March 2001. The highest catches in shallow water occurred in June, with a second peak in September and October, and were always at night, indicating this species as nocturnal predator.

The tolerance of the European sea bass to high salinities was determined through abrupt and gradual transfers to different hyperosmotic media. Mortality rate reached roughly 50% in fish abruptly transferred to 70 psu salinity and in fish gradually adapted to 90 psu salinity. All fish abruptly transferred to 90 psu salinity expired in less than three hours. A crisis and regulation type osmoregulatory pattern, related to the range of the osmotic shock, was recorded following abrupt transfers to the tolerable experimental media. The lethal level of blood osmolality in sea bass was determined.

An animal-borne video camera and data-logger was used to collect behavioural data on green (Chelonia mydas) and loggerhead (Caretta caretta) turtles in Western Australia. This technique provided novel insights into the behaviour of green turtles including an apparent self-cleaning behaviour. Also, ctenophores and jellyfish might be more important in the diet of these turtles than previously thought.