Aquatic Animals

This article is about animals that spend almost all their lives underwater and have adapted accordingly. Besides fish, several species of reptiles and mammals have developed a means to breathe underwater, be it via gills or lungs.

While sea turtles and other aquatic reptiles spend most of their lives underwater, they will go on land to give birth. After laying the eggs, the mother leaves them behind. Once they hatch, the newborns return to the sea quickly and are highly vulnerable to predation during this period.

Animals like river otters or iguanas are only partially aquatic since they also spend a lot of time on land. These creatures are semi-aquatic.

List of Aquatic Animals

Mammals

Amazon River Dolphin
Amazonian Manatee
Beluga Whale
Blainville’s Beaked Whale
Blue Whale
Common Bottlenose Dolphin
Dugong
Dwarf Sperm Whale
Finback Whale
Gray Whale
Harbor Porpoise
Humpback Whale
Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin
Narwhal
Orca
Short-finned Pilot Whale
Southern Right Whale
Sperm Whale
Vaquita
West African Manatee
West Indian Manatee

Reptiles

Australian Flatback Sea Turtle
Green Sea Turtle
Hawksbill Sea Turtle
Horned Sea Snake
Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle
Leatherback Sea Turtle
Loggerhead Sea Turtle
Olive Ridley Sea Turtle
Shaw’s Sea Snake

Invertebrates

Asian Clam
Asian Shore Crab
Atlantic Bay Nettle
Atlantic Horseshoe Crab
Blue Blubber Jelly
Channeled Apple Snail
Chinese Mitten Crab
Clubbed Tunicate
Colonial Sea Squirt
European Green Crab
Golden Mussel
Killer Shrimp
New Zealand Mud Snail
Quagga Mussel
Rusty Crayfish
Spiny Water Flea
Veined Rapa Whelk
White Spotted Jellyfish
Zebra Mussel

Fish

Banggai Cardinalfish
Barramundi
Bighead Carp
Black Grouper
Blacktip Reef Shark
Bowfin
Brown Trout
Dwarf Gourami
European Eel
French Grunt
Giant Grouper
Gold-band Fusilier
Horn Shark
Leafy Seadragon
Longfin Sculpin
Mandarin Dragonet
Orange Chromide
Oyster Toadfish
Pacific Hagfish
Queensland Lungfish
Red Lionfish
Sailfish
Walking Catfish
West Indian Ocean Coelacanth
Whale Shark

FAQs

What is the fastest aquatic animal in the world?

The sailfish is the fastest creature in the water, swimming at speeds of 68 mph.

Which aquatic animals are endangered?

Vaquitas, whale sharks, several species of turtles and whales, etc.

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