speciation

[ spee-shee-ey-shuhn, -see-ey- ]

See synonyms for speciation on Thesaurus.com

nounBiology.

the formation of new species as a result of geographic, physiological, anatomical, or behavioral factors that prevent previously interbreeding populations from breeding with each other.

Origin of speciation

First recorded in 1895–1900; speci(es) + -ation

Words Nearby speciation

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use speciation in a sentence

The result, in the first half of the book, is a dense but lucid guide to the history and biology of speciation on Earth.
Timeless meditations on Earth’s fragility, and the damage humans do | Balaji Ravichandran | May 14, 2021 | Washington Post
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.
New Fish Data Reveal How Evolutionary Bursts Create Species | Elena Renken | December 1, 2020 | Quanta Magazine
Proponents of the hologenome idea, meanwhile, have tried to demonstrate that microbes can drive speciation.
When Evolution Is Infectious - Issue 90: Something Green | Moises Velasquez-Manoff | September 30, 2020 | Nautilus
Natural selection plus geographical and ecological isolation has undoubtedly been operative in speciation and in subspeciation.
Speciation in the Kangaroo Rat, Dipodomys ordii | Henry W. Setzer
Nutrition may be also a factor influencing speciation in bird life.
The Avifauna of Micronesia, Volume 3 | Rollin H. Baker

According to present-day concepts of variation and speciation, Andersen's criteria are artificial.
Systematics of Megachiropteran Bats in the Solomon Islands | Carleton J. Phillips
Additional remarks on the distribution of this species are in the section on Zoogeography and speciation.
Systematics of Megachiropteran Bats in the Solomon Islands | Carleton J. Phillips
In fact, isolation is a most important factor in speciation of insular populations (Baker, 1951:55).
Systematics of Megachiropteran Bats in the Solomon Islands | Carleton J. Phillips

British Dictionary definitions for speciation

speciation

/ (ˌspiːʃɪˈeɪʃən) /

noun

the evolutionary development of a biological species, as by geographical isolation of a group of individuals from the main stock

Origin of speciation

C20: from species + -ation

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for speciation

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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