An evolutionary ecologist at the University of Southampton in the UK, is using 'grains of sand' to understand more about the process of evolution. Dr. Thomas Ezard is using the fossils of microscopic aquatic creatures called planktonic foraminifera, often less than a millimeter in size, which can be found in all of the world's oceans. The remains of their shells now resemble grains of sand to the naked eye and date back hundreds of millions of years. A new paper by Dr. Ezard, published online on August 9, 2013 in an open-access article in the journal Methods in Ecology & Evolution, opens the debate on the best way to understand how new species come into existence (speciation). The debate concerns whether fossil records such as those of the planktonic foraminifera, contain useful evidence of speciation over and above the molecular study of evolution. Molecular evolution traditionally uses evidence from species that are alive today to determine what their ancestors may have looked like, whereas this new research promotes the importance of using fossil records in conjunction with the molecular models. Dr. Ezard, from Biological Sciences and the Institute for Life Sciences at Southampton, says: "Because planktonic foraminifera have been around for many millions of years and rocks containing groups of their species can be dated precisely, we can use their fossils to see evidence of how species evolve over time. We can also see how differences between individual members of species develop and, in theory, how a new species comes into existence. The controversial hypothesis we test is that the processes leading to a new species coming into existence provoke a short, sharp burst of rapid genetic change.Login Or Register To Read Full Story