Give the biological/technical term for the following:
The evolutionary process by which new species arise from the existing ones.
Topic: Speciation
Answer
SPECIATION.
Speciation is the formation of a NEW SPECIES from an existing one. It is the process that produces the diversity of life from common ancestors.
How it comes about: a population becomes divided — most often by a geographical barrier such as a river, a mountain range or an ocean. The two groups can no longer interbreed, so variations arising in one are not shared with the other. Over many generations natural selection acts differently on each, and eventually the two groups differ so much that they can no longer interbreed even if brought together. At that point they are separate species.
THE DEFINING TEST of a species is REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION — members of one species cannot produce fertile offspring with members of another. It is not a matter of how different they look. Darwin’s finches on the Galápagos are the classic illustration: one ancestral species on separate islands became many, each with a beak suited to its own food supply.