A German research team recently returned from an expedition to the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia. It made some spectacular discoveries: organisms that have existed for more than 65 million years, and have hardly changed since the age of the dinosaurs. The team discovered some of these living fossils in the shallow reefs, others in deeper hollows using a remote-controlled submarine. This enabled them to compare living members of the nautilus family with their extinct ancestors. The research has opened a window onto the past, with views of geological and evolutionary history.