Marine Biology History Timeline

Aristotle identified a large variety of species such as crustaceans, echinoderms, mollusks and fish. His observations make him an influential player in the beginnings of marine biology.

The Polynesians were heavily involved in the exploration of marine life. They made great efforts to explore and populate the great Polynesian triangle. They were among the first people to go out and explore the mysteries of the ocean and marine life.

James Cook is very well known for his voyages of exploration for the British Navy. With these, he mapped a significant amount of the world's uncharted waters. With his explorations, he was able to document a myriad of previously unknown plants and animals. He was also able to influence a countless number of scientists examining marine life more closely.

Charles Darwin made many significant contributions to the early study of marine biology. With his time on the HMS Beagle, he collected and studied specimens from a variety of marine organisms. On this expedition, he also began to study coral reefs and their formation. He came up with the theory that the overall growth of corals is a balance between the growth of coral upward and the sinking of the sea floor.

Charles Wyville Thompson organized and led the HMS Challenger on an expedition devoted entirely to marine science. This expedition collected and analyzed thousands of marine specimens, laying the foundation for present knowledge about life near the deep-sea floor.

Spencer Fullerton Baird, the first director of the US Commission of Fish and Fisheries began a collection station in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1871. It still exists today and is known as the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. It's the oldest fisheries research center in the world.

The second USS Albatross, known as the USFC Albatross in scientific literature citations, was built. This was the first research vessel ever built especially for marine research.

In 1950, Conrad Limbaugh forms a scientific divint team at Scripts Institution of Oceanography in California. This is the first marine biology program formed around the usage of scuba equipment for aquatic research.

In the 1960s and 1970s, ecological research into the life of the ocean was undertaken at institutions set up specifically to study marine biology. Probably the most notable was the Woods Holes Oceanographic Institution in America. One of their findings was an unexpectedly high species diversity in places thought to be inhabitable.

In 1977, scientists discovered seafloor vents that gushed warm, mineral-rich fluid into the cold water at the depths of the Pacific Ocean. These became known as hydrothermal vents. This discovery was particularly important because, with it, an ecosystem was found that was able to sustain itself without sunlight, relying solely on chemical energy from the vented materials. This process is called chemosynthesis.