What is speciation?

2 Answers
May 16, 2018

Speciation is an evolutionary process that leads to formation of new distinct species that are reproductively isolated from one another.

Explanation:

All forms of natural speciation have taken place over the course of evolution. Speciation occurs when groups of species become reproductively isolated and diverge.

The four modes of speciation are allopatric, peripatric, parapatric, and sympatric.
Artificial speciation can be induced through animal husbandry, agriculture, or laboratory experiments.
In certain cases if a hybrid is favoured by the process of natural selection, then new species can also be created through hybridisation followed by reproductive isolation.

May 16, 2018

Speciation is the process of formation of new species from an existing population .

Explanation:

Often a population is subjected to pressures that separate some individuals from the others such that over time the separated individuals evolve into a different species altogether.
They are similar in appearance to the members of the parent population but the members of the new and parent species can no longer interbreed.
The pressures could be geographical.Some members of a parent population may come to inhabit a part of land that over time is separated by a river or a mountain or is cast off as an island.
Human intervention could also be a kind of pressure on the species.

Darwin's Finches are the most famous example of speciation. The Galapagos islands have species of finches that differ from each in beak size. Depending upon the food available beaks could be large or small and many sizes and shapes in between.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin%27s_finches