Offspring of a common coral branching species set up a new home up to 100 kilometres or more from their parents in one of the longest dispersal distances ever measured. The findings show – for the first time – the connectivity between the broadcast-spawning coral populations of the Great Barrier Reef, Coral Sea atolls and New Caledonia in the Western Pacific. This exchange of gametes and genetic variants over vast distances can help other populations to adapt to their own changing environmental conditions.

The earliest known eukaryotes, the ancestors of all complex life on Earth, lived in oxygenated, shallow marine environments nearly 1.7 billion years ago, according to a new study led by researchers at McGill University and the University of California, Santa Barbara. The findings cast doubt on the long-held belief that early complex life emerged in oxygen-poor environments or floated freely in the open ocean.

A new study of the blue button (Porpita porpita), a small and elusive sea creature which lives on the surface of the ocean, has found that it may live for several years adrift at sea, much longer than previously estimated. Researchers from the University of Tokyo’s Misaki Marine Biological Station also found that the float which keeps the animal adrift expands by growing new rings from its outermost layer. Blue buttons are notoriously difficult to keep alive in captivity, so this is a step closer towards eventually understanding their full life cycle.

Florida State University chemists have synthesized new molecules derived from bacteria found in a Pacific Ocean sea sponge, a breakthrough for the future of drug development, particularly for rare forms of cancer.