Speciation

Speciation

Speciation; the process by which two or more species evolve from one orginal species
Species; a group of organisms sharing similar features which a reprdouctively isolated from other species and which can interbred to produce fertile offspring
Organisms that do not interbred to produce fertile offspring under normal circumstances are regarded as reproductively isolated, and they belong to a seperate species
Reproductive isolation; becoming unable to interbred. Rarely to all memebers of a species exist in a single large population. they usually live in a number of local interbreeding populations called demes. If rproductive isolation occurs between demes the demes may over a long period of time evolve by natural selection into a new species
Mechanisms that prevent breeding between popualtions and which can eventually lead to speciation are called isolating mechanisms. The most important is thought to be geografical isolation, in which two popluations orginally of the same species are seperated from each other by a physical barrier e.g. ocean

Resource summary

	Created by harry_bygraves almost 11 years ago