Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
Controversy exists as to whether Charles Darwin recognized a true geographical-based model of speciation in his publication On the Origin of Species. [5] In chapter 11, "Geographical Distribution", Darwin discusses geographic barriers to migration, stating for example that "barriers of any kind, or obstacles to free migration, are related in a close and important manner to the differences ...
[1] [2] Evidence for speciation by reinforcement has been gathered since the 1990s, and along with data from comparative studies and laboratory experiments, has overcome many of the objections to the theory. [3]: 354 [4] [5] Differences in behavior or biology that inhibit formation of hybrid zygotes are termed prezygotic isolation.
if two recently speciated taxa do not show signs of post-zygotic isolation of both sympatric and allopatric populations (in sympatric speciation, post-zygotic isolation is not a prerequisite); [46] if a cline exists between two species over a range of traits (sympatric speciation does not require a cline to exist at all). [47]
Mayr's definition has gained wide acceptance among biologists, but does not apply to organisms such as bacteria, which reproduce asexually. Speciation is the lineage-splitting event that results in two separate species forming from a single common ancestral population. [15] A widely accepted method of speciation is called allopatric speciation.
The mechanisms of reproductive isolation are a collection of evolutionary mechanisms, behaviors and physiological processes critical for speciation.They prevent members of different species from producing offspring, or ensure that any offspring are sterile.
Parapatric speciation, in which two diverging populations are separate but do overlap somewhat; partial separation is afforded by geography, so individuals of each species may come in contact from time to time, but selection for specific behaviors or mechanisms may prevent breeding between the two groups.
When intraspecific competition is not at work disruptive selection can still lead to sympatric speciation and it does this through maintaining polymorphisms. Once the polymorphisms are maintained in the population, if assortative mating is taking place, then this is one way that disruptive selection can lead in the direction of sympatric ...