Resolving natural ranges and marine invasions in a globally distributed octocoral (genus Carijoa).

The article reports on the result of a study which confirm the reliability of the first published report of the snowflake coral in Hawaii from Pearl Harbor in 1972. The study includes the use of mitochondrial (mtDNA) and nuclear (nDNA) sequence date to compare Hawaiian populations with samples of Carijoa collected worldwide. Result of the study shows that the published reports of geographically wide-ranging invasions of Carijoa throughout the Pacific appear unfounded because their global sampling shows higher diversity in mtDNA and nDNA throughout the Pacific relative to the Caribbean-Atlantic, indicating long evolutionary presence of Carijoa in the region.