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The ability to obtain information about feeding selectivity and rates in situ for key organisms such as copepods and other zooplankton is vital for understanding the mechanisms structuring marine ecosystems. Copepods feed on a wide range of prey, and there are presently no methods available to directly quantify zooplankton feeding on all different prey types in situ. Therefore, the development of a new nonintrusive direct method is necessary to gain a better understanding of the trophic interactions in aquatic ecosystems. Molecular methods based on the polymerase chain reaction have recently become an important tool to study predation by arthropods, particularly insects. Here we present the first results of successful molecular detection of a specific prey consumed by calanoid copepods from gut and fecal material. Using the calanoid copepod species Calanus finmarchicus consuming the haptophyte alga …