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Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species.The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within lineages.
Anoles on a given island evolve into multiple body types and ecological preferences, and the same set of body types appears in unrelated species across distant islands. [93] The Asian sea snake Hydrophis schistosus (beaked sea snake) looks just like the Australian sea snake Hydrophis zweifeli, but in fact is not related. [94]
Species go extinct constantly as environments change, as organisms compete for environmental niches, and as genetic mutation leads to the rise of new species from older ones. At long irregular intervals, Earth's biosphere suffers a catastrophic die-off, a mass extinction , [ 9 ] often comprising an accumulation of smaller extinction events over ...
The species is less than a quarter inch long and digs into the muddy sand, researchers said. ... IT’S A NEW SPECIES. The deep-sea animal had “distinctive triangular arms,” a study said. ...
Carcinisation (American English: carcinization) is a form of convergent evolution in which non-crab crustaceans evolve a crab-like body plan. The term was introduced into evolutionary biology by Lancelot Alexander Borradaile, who described it as "the many attempts of Nature to evolve a crab". [2]
The recurrent evolution of flight is a classic example, as flying insects, birds, pterosaurs, and bats have independently evolved the useful capacity of flight. Functionally similar features that have arisen through convergent evolution are analogous , whereas homologous structures or traits have a common origin but can have dissimilar functions.
The terminology did not settle down until some time after the publication of the Origin of Species. The word evolved in a modern sense was first used in 1826 in an anonymous paper published in Robert Jameson's journal and evolution was a relative late-comer which can be seen in Herbert Spencer's Social Statics of 1851, [a] and at least one ...
Humans have introduced more different species to new environments than any single document can record. This list is generally for established species with truly wild populations— not kept domestically, that have been seen numerous times, and have breeding populations. While most introduced species can cause a negative impact to new ...