Kenny Brawner

Biology
2/8/14

POW: Speciation

Geographic barriers are natural occurrences such as a lake or road that can divide a
population and cause divergent evolution. This happens because the gene pool is divided and
these organisms can no longer interbreed. Discrepancies develop over millions of years and the
new populations arent physically capable interbreeding successfully. For example, a small group
of tortoises from South America were carried over the ocean to the Galapagos Islands. This is
also known as the founder effect; a group branches off and settles in a different environment than
the original. This greatly reduces the amount of genetic variability, and there is no migration to
introduce new alleles. A tortoise or tortoises were selected for because of a favorable trait and
genetic drift occurred. This often happens in small populations because there is a limited amount
of alleles in the gene pool to start with. Over a long period of time, this favorable trait is passed
on in succession to the following generations and starts to define the new population of tortoises.
After even more time, evolution causes reproductive barriers so even if these two populations
were to get together again, they wouldnt be able to produce viable offspring. At this point,
speciation has occurred and there are now two distinct tortoise populations with characteristics
fitting their environment.
Ecological isolation is the separation of geographically co-occurring organisms by
different ecological preferences. Seasonal isolation is an example. Certain organisms diverge
because two populations start to mate at different points of the year. One example of seasonal
isolation is the American toad and Fowler's toad. These are closely related species, but the
American toad mates in the early part of summer, while the Fowler's toad mates later in the
season. Different preferences developed by two populations create discrepancies in their genetic

Kenny Brawner
Biology
2/8/14

material, rendering them incompatible for interbreeding. This is an example of divergent

evolution which can also be described by speciation.
Behavioral isolation is a form of reproductive isolation where two populations have
differences in courtship rituals that prevent them from interbreeding. Certain traits are sought
after by females while the other females have their own distinct preferences. For example, a
population of song birds has two different tones to their songs. One has a high pitch and certain
female birds look for this tone. The others look for the low toned songs. Even though there arent
any physical barriers separating them, they slowly become two populations and they lose
reproductive similarities. Over a long period of time, they develop more differences that cause
speciation.
Polyploidy is the condition of having one or more extra sets of chromosomes. The
most common place to find this condition is in plants. An example would be banana plants.
When they developed, they were made as a hybrid. The homologous chromosomes stayed
together in the cell, and an extra set of chromosomes was maintained. This instantly caused
divergence because the chromosome numbers are different.