The diversity and consequences of development in marine invertebrates has, for a long time, provided the opportunity to understand different evolutionary solutions to living in variable environments. However, discrete classifications of development can impede a full understanding of adaptation to variable environments when behavioral, morphological, or physiological flexibility and variation exists within traditionally defined modes of development. We report here novel behavioral variability in hatchlings of a marine gastropod, the Florida crown conch (Melongena corona),...

Disturbance impacts the spatial distribution of primary producers, which can have cascading effects on ecosystem function. The lower-intertidal zone on the rocky shores of the Pacific Northwest is one such place where wave energy creates a mosaic-like distribution between two assemblages: surfgrass (Phyllospadix scouleri) meadows and macroalgal forests dominated by kelp. We simulated wave disturbance by experimentally removing patches of surfgrass monocultures, resulting in a macroalgal assemblage with increased diversity, biomass, and net primary productivity...

Calcium silicate perovskite, CaSiO3, is arguably the most geochemically important phase in the lower mantle, because it concentrates elements that are incompatible in the upper mantle, including the heat-generating elements thorium and uranium, which have half-lives longer than the geologic history of Earth. We report CaSiO3-perovskite as an approved mineral (IMA2020-12a) with the name davemaoite. The natural specimen of davemaoite proves the existence of compositional heterogeneity within the lower mantle. Our observations indicate that davemaoite...