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speciation
/ ˌspiːʃɪˈeɪʃən /
noun
- the evolutionary development of a biological species, as by geographical isolation of a group of individuals from the main stock
speciation
/ spē′shē-ā′shən /
- The formation of new biological species by the development or branching of one species into two or more genetically distinct ones. The divergence of species is thought to result primarily from the geographic isolation of a population, especially when confronted with environmental conditions that vary from those experienced by the rest of the species, and from the random change in the frequency of certain alleles (known as genetic drift ). According to the theory of evolution, all life on Earth has resulted from the speciation of earlier organisms.
- See also adaptive radiation
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Word History and Origins
Origin of speciation1
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Word History and Origins
Origin of speciation1
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Example Sentences
The result, in the first half of the book, is a dense but lucid guide to the history and biology of speciation on Earth.
An initial pulse of evolution produced a slew of new species with different body shapes, which lent support to the idea that speciation is concentrated near the beginning of an adaptive radiation.
Proponents of the hologenome idea, meanwhile, have tried to demonstrate that microbes can drive speciation.
Natural selection plus geographical and ecological isolation has undoubtedly been operative in speciation and in subspeciation.
Nutrition may be also a factor influencing speciation in bird life.
According to present-day concepts of variation and speciation, Andersen's criteria are artificial.
Additional remarks on the distribution of this species are in the section on Zoogeography and Speciation.
In fact, isolation is a most important factor in speciation of insular populations (Baker, 1951:55).
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