The geobiologists discovered some of these living fossils in the shallow reefs, others in deeper hollows using a remote-controlled submarine. This enabled them, for example, 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.

DW-TV: One of principle investigators conducting the study who just recently returned from that three-week expedition joins us now in the studio... Professor Gert Wörheide, a geobiologist from the University of Munich, we thank you very much for joining us.

First I'd like to begin with what exactly is a 'geobiologist'?

Gert Wörheide: A geobiologist is a scientist who works at the interface between geosciences and biosciences, basically applies biological methods ... to infer processes in the past.

OK, now you've just returned from this project in the Coral Sea, what makes that region of special interest in geological and biological terms?

In terms of geology it's very interesting because the area where we were working on the Queensland Plateau, which is about a hundred nautical miles off the Great Barrier Reef, separated very early from the Australian continent and has been marine all the time, even during sea-level changes and we expected a very ancient living fossil fauna there that has survived since the Mesozoic, since the time of the dinosaurs basically.

OK, and how are your discoveries important, which scientific questions can they help clarify?

So basically the first question that we were addressing is: are those animals really there? How do the communities look like and why were they so stable over the last millions of years? And which animals were there and what is their ecology?

OK, and you've brought a few things to show us today. I'm going to lift these and try not to drop them, because I know they're very valuable and old! Can you tell me what I'm holding in my hand?

So this is a fossil nautilus and this is from the Jurassic period, from the time of the dinosaurs, more than a hundred million years ago basically. And this is a modern nautilus from the Philippines as we observe them also in the Coral Sea.

And we have a bigger object here, can you tell us a bit about that?

So this is a bigger, fully grown adult nautilus and basically a cross-section. And the soft tissue or the animal lives in this big section and the tentacles come out here and we have a sypho here where the animal pumps in and releases gas into the chambers and it can then lift itself up and down and control its buoyancy in the ocean.

OK, and that's also from modern times?

Yes, this is from the Pacific.

OK, now a research voyage to Australia sounds very glamorous - beautiful waters, probably also very beautiful weather, what's the reality like?

Most of the time, yes, we had really good weather, that's why we went just before Christmas because that's the time of the lowest winds...

..It's intense, it's hot outside and the boat is small, there are 20 people on the boat and you can't escape basically, you're there for three weeks with 20 people.

Right. Briefly - what's next, any more expeditions?

First we have to work out the results and the findings of THIS expedition. But then we're looking forward to getting back down there of course.

OK, Gert Wörheide, we thank you very much for being on our show.

You're welcome.

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