Sudden origins : fossils, genes and the emergence of species

The field of genetics remains a little understood area of science, yet one which continues to provoke involved and often heated debate.

Here, Jeffrey Schwartz introduces a recent discovery in genetics - the discovery of a new type of gene called the homeobox gene, and argues that this discovery leads to a radical new understanding of how evolution works.

This gene, the author suggests, can cause dramatic and very rapid mutations in animals, leading to a spectacular increase in the rate of evolution.

Conventional evolutionary theory has suggested that the process can only occur over a lengthy period of time, allowing new species to develop slowly.

Such an innovative theory, therefore, is bound to cause controversy, especially when it used to provide the answer to one of the outstanding questions raised by the evolutionary process, namely, how exactly do new species emerge?