TASK 3 (DUE 5 NOV)

POINT (main ⅚, attached gambar dll)

1. various Ensatina salamanders of the Pacific coast all descended from a common ancestral

population. As the species spread southward from Oregon and Washington, subpopulations
adapted to their local environments on either side. From one population to the next, in a circular
pattern, these salamanders are still able to interbreed successfully. However, where the circle
closes -- in the black zone on the map in Southern California -- the salamanders no longer
interbreed successfully. The variation within a single species has produced differences as large as
those between two separate species

2. ring species is the salamander Ensatina escholtzii In Southern California. naturalists have found
what look like two distinct species scrabbling across the ground. One is marked with strong, dark
blotches in a cryptic pattern that camouflages it well. The other is more uniform and brighter,
with bright yellow eyes, apparently in mimicry of the deadly poisonous western newt. These two
populations coexist in some areas but do not interbreed -- and evidently cannot do so.

3. Moving up the state, the two populations are divided geographically, with the dark, cryptic form
occupying the inland mountains and the conspicuous mimic living along the coast. Still farther to
the north, in northern California and Oregon, the two populations merge, and only one form is
found. In this area, it is clear that what looked like two separate species in the south are in fact a
single species with several interbreeding subspecies, joined together in one continuous ring.

4. north, where the single form is found. This is probably the ancestral population. As it expanded
south, the population became split in central California, forming two different groups. In the
Sierra Nevada the salamanders evolved their cryptic coloration. Along the coast they gradually
became brighter and brighter
5. some members of the sub-populations still find each other and interbreed to produce hybrids,
but they are neither well-camouflaged nor good mimics, so they are vulnerable to predators.
They also seem to have difficulty finding mates, so the hybrids do not reproduce successfully.
These two factors keep the two forms from merging, even though they can interbreed

6. By the time the salamanders reached the southernmost part of California, the separation had
caused the two groups to evolve enough differences that they had become reproductively
isolated. In some areas the two populations coexist, closing the "ring," Yet the entire complex of
populations belongs to a single taxonomic species, Ensatina escholtzii.

7. the species started off in Northern California and Oregon and then spread south along both sides
of the Central Valley, which was too dry and hot for salamanders. According to
Robert's hypothesis, as the pioneering populations moved south, they evolved into
several subspecies with new color patterns and adaptations for living in different environments.
By the time they met again in Southern California as the subspecies eschscholtzii and klauberi, he
argued, they had each evolved so much that they no longer interbred — even though the
subspecies blended into one another around the rest of the ring. Since species are often defined
by their inability to interbreed with other species, Ensatina seemed to represent the whole
process of speciation — all the gradual changes that accumulate in two lineages and that wind up
making them incompatible with one another.

8. their color patterns. First, neighboring subspecies were more similar to one another than to
those across the ring and seemed to blend into one another. From this, he hypothesized
that Ensatina represented a ring species.

 
9. more specialized southern forms could have evolved from picta. Based on this, Robert
hypothesized that the two southward-moving Ensatina lineages had both emerged from picta's
immediate ancestor

10. Even though eschscholtzii and klauberi live in the same places in Southern California, their

proteins are quite different from one another and each is more biochemically similar to its
northern neighbor. these two subspecies represent the endpoints of the ring species
11. picta's immediate ancestors gave rise to the whole ring species.
12. That Ensatina got its start in the north and moved south through California.
13. northern salamander lineages had the greatest variety of sequences
14. northern salamander lineages branched off near the base of that family tree — suggesting that
they are closely related to the ancestor of the ring
15. from Ensatina's nuclear DNA should show the same patterns as its mitochondrial DNA, with the
most diversity in the north and big genetic differences distinguishing the southernmost lineages

16. a few locations in Southern California where the muted western form (eschscholtzii) and the
blotchy eastern form (klauberi) live together and actually do interbreed, producing blurrily
blotched hybrids.5 It was this observation that piqued Tom's interest. Why do the two forms
interbreed in some places and not others, and — since they do sometimes interbreed — what's
keeping the two forms distinct? Why don't these two subspecies blend into one another, as the
forms around the rest of the ring do?

17. Perhaps they rarely recognize each other as potential mates. Many animals use particular clues
to help them determine who would make an appropriate mate. Those clues may come in the
form of a smell (e.g., a pheromone), a physical trait (e.g., a color pattern), or a behavior (e.g., a
particular mating call or dance). Maybe eschscholtzii and klauberi have evolved such that they
are attracted to different cues and so now avoid each other in the salamander singles
scene.Perhaps they are reproductively incompatible. The two subspecies might have no qualms
about mating with one another but rarely produce healthy offspring because of basic biological
differences that have evolved as the two lineages moved south. Perhaps they rarely mate
because they rarely meet. For example, the two might prefer different habitats or have such
different lifestyles that they rarely even run into one another — let alone get together and
mate.And of course, some combination of these factors might come into play — but to figure out
which, Tom would need to collect some evidence

18. examine his first hypothesis — the idea that eschscholtzii and klauberi have trouble recognizing
each other as potential mates. Klauberi females weren't picky at all; they mated with males of
their own subspecies and eschscholtzii males. Eschscholtzii females, on the other hand, seemed
to be choosier; they rejected klauberi males.. eschscholtzii, at least, has evolved such that the
females no longer recognize klauberi as potential mates.  that they are the offspring of
a klauberi female and an eschscholtzii male

19.
REFERENCES (at least 8)