Researchers at the University of Michigan have found another piece to the evolutionary puzzle through studying clams along the rocky Australian coast. An infrequent climatic event coupled with the unique underwater geography of the Australian coast provided the necessary conditions for three species of clam to diverge from one single ancestral line more than 13 or 14 million years ago, says researchers from the University of Michigan. Using the massive climate event called the middle Miocene climate transition, the authors suggest that during this time the Australian coast was split into different environmental zones with very different conditions. This change caused the split of one ancestral line of clam into four genetically different species.  The Australian southern coast has three evolutionary distinct collections of marine taxon known as biogeographic provinces, and within each province species can vary morphologically as well as genetically. Co-author Diarmaid O’Foighil on the three members of clam currently classified as Lasaea australis:  ”You cannot tell them apart physically, but their genes indicate that their evolutionary divergence predates that of humans from chimpanzees.” Further strengthening their findings, “This study provides important clues about how marine regional biotas can evolve, including our observation that these processes can involve major global climate change modulated by local geography,” Jingchun Li, lead author of the report and a doctoral student in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Read more here!… More: