FAIRFAX, Va.---Patrick M. Gillevet, a professor in the School of Computational Sciences at George Mason University, recently joined forces with two research teams from the National Museum of Natural History and the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum to search for living fossils at the bottom of the ocean in the Bahamas. Living fossils are animal species that were considered extinct and only known through fossil record, but have been found to be alive today.

The four-man crew used a small submarine to collect numerous samples, primarily of slitsnails and other marine gastropods, in 800 to 2,500 feet of water. DNA from the samples, along with water and sediment samples, help reveal patterns of molecular evolution. Gillevet hopes the research will answer questions about how these animals have survived for hundreds of millions of years with little significant physical change, whether or not they have changed over time, in what ways they have changed and how they compare to other living gastropods.

"Personally, the slitsnail expedition was an unqualified success for me," says Gillevet. "I thoroughly enjoyed the cruise and the opportunity to travel into the inner space of mother earth. Even for a scuba instructor as myself, it was a fascinating voyage into an unfamiliar realm from which new evidence may turn some familiar paradigms of biology upside down."

The research team continues its expedition next fall when members dive into the Gulf of Mexico to study the effects of coral reef on its environment on a global scale.

"There was one disturbing observation that we made on the trip," says Gillevet. "That is the death of the coral reefs all over the Bahamas. It is an example of what is happening all over the world. The cause is not clear, whether it is from global warming or from anthropogenic (man-made) causes. We have samples from the dying coral as well as water and sediment samples from various depths. Hopefully we can use the molecular tools we have at hand to try to probe and elucidate the effects of these environmental processes on the marine biota. Maybe then we can begin to understand the processes of this inner biosphere that supports all life on the planet, and only then is there hope of saving the coral reefs of the world."

The research team's experiences are being tracked on the Smithsonian Institution website.

Media Contact:
Jeremy Lasich, 993-8781 or jlasich@gmu.edu

7-19-00

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