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Often, two or more species co-adapt and co-evolve as they develop adaptations that interlock with those of the other species, such as with flowering plants and pollinating insects. In mimicry , species evolve to resemble other species; in mimicry this is a mutually beneficial co-evolution as each of a group of strongly defended species (such as ...
Evolution can be extremely rapid, as shown in the creation of domesticated animals and plants in a very short geological space of time, spanning only a few tens of thousands of years. Maize ( Zea mays ), for instance, was created in Mexico in only a few thousand years, starting about 7,000 to 12,000 years ago. [ 88 ]
The result of four billion years of evolution is the diversity of life around us, with an estimated 1.75 million different species in existence today. [ 71 ] [ 72 ] Usually the process of speciation is slow, occurring over very long time spans; thus direct observations within human life-spans are rare.
Generally, sympatric speciation in animals requires the evolution of both genetic differences and nonrandom mating, to allow reproductive isolation to evolve. [218] One type of sympatric speciation involves crossbreeding of two related species to produce a new hybrid species. This is not common in animals as animal hybrids are usually sterile.
When two or more species evolve in company with each other, one species adapts to changes in other species. This type of evolution often happens in species that have symbiotic relationships. For example, predator-prey coevolution, this is the most common type of co-evolution.
[1] [2] Starting with a single ancestor, this process results in the speciation and phenotypic adaptation of an array of species exhibiting different morphological and physiological traits. The prototypical example of adaptive radiation is finch speciation on the Galapagos (" Darwin's finches "), but examples are known from around the world.
This thus may represent a potential signal of parallel adaptation to the malaria parasite in the two species," said University College London evolutionary geneticist Aida Andrés, who led the ...
A rare example of sympatric speciation in animals is the divergence of "resident" and "transient" orca forms in the northeast Pacific. [26] Resident and transient orcas inhabit the same waters, but avoid each other and do not interbreed. The two forms hunt different prey species and have different diets, vocal behaviour, and social structures.
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