Why Gobies Are Like Hobbits

摘要

As Bilbo Baggins famously warned, travel is an uncertain business: "You step into the Road, and ... there is no knowing where you might be swept off to" (1). For the better part of a century, marine biologists have assumed the roads of ocean currents are just as uncertain, and that the drifting eggs and larvae and rafting propagules of many marine species end up far from their homes, on distant shores. Now, on page 107 of this issue, Taylor and Hellberg (2) help to overturn this notion. They provide further evidence that at least some marine species whose larvae have the potential to disperse over long distances, instead show a remarkable fondness for home. During the past 2 years, evidence For this new way of thinking has come from two very different sources: advanced genetic monitoring of widely scattered populations, as demonstrated by Taylor and Hellberg in their new work; and elemental analysis of the chemical signatures contained in larval structures (3).