Multi-coloured homologues of the green fluorescent protein generate some of the most striking visual phenomena in the ocean. Despite their natural prominence in reef-building corals and widespread use in biotechnology, their biological role remains obscure. Here, we experimented with larvae of Acropora millepora to determine what can be learned about a coral larva or recruit from its fluorescen...

The services provided by coastal ecosystems such as mangrove forests and sea-grass beds are becoming increasingly recognised, yet the functional role of maerl beds has not been addressed. Maerl forms highly biodiverse habitats composed of loose-lying coralline red algae which build up over thousands of years. These carbonate-rich deposits occur in photic areas with strong water movement; they h...

The appearance of photosynthetic eukaryotes (algae and plants) dramatically altered the Earth's ecosystem, making possible all vertebrate life on land, including humans. Dating algal origin is, however, frustrated by a meager fossil record. We generated a plastid multi-gene phylogeny with Bayesian inference and then used maximum likelihood molecular clock methods to estimate algal divergence ti...