Recent evidence that echinoids of the genus Echinometra have moderate visual acuity that appears to be mediated by their spines screening off-axis light suggests that the urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, with its higher spine density, may have even more acute spatial vision. We analyzed the movements of 39 specimens of S. purpuratus after they were placed in the center of a featureless tan...

The 1997-98 El Niño event was the most severe on record, resulting in record elevated water temperatures across much of the world’s tropical ocean regions. This event triggered extensive bleaching of coral reefs world-wide, but little information is available on the impact of this major global event on the non-coral invertebrates associated with reef systems. Here, we report the results of a 6 ...

The causes of speciation in the sea are rarely obvious, because geographical barriers are not conspicuous and dispersal abilities or marine organisms, particularly those of species with planktonic larvae, are hard to determine. The phylogenetic relations of species in cosmopolitan genera can provide information on the likely mode of their formation. We reconstructed the phylogeny of the pantrop...