Corals' boldest cousins: Zoantharians bend the laws of evolution

In the realm of marine biogeography, there is a widely held scientific principle: the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific oceans are worlds apart. If you dive in Brazil and then in Okinawa, you expect to see entirely different groups of fish and coral. But according to a new global study published in Frontiers of Biogeography, one group of colorful hexacorals, anemone-like creatures—known as zoantharians—is breaking all the rules.