Speciation

The event when a lineage splits into

different species
Speciation is defined by…

Physical attributes?

Habitats?

Behaviour?

Ability to mate?
What cause individuals to stop
mating with each other?
Physical attributes
• Incompatible reproductive organs

Habitat
• Different habitat

Behaviour
• Different calls, dances
• Different nests, attractions
Mechanisms for speciation

Branching event

Two broad categories

• Allopatric speciation – “other homeland”
• Sympatric speciation – “same homeland”
Speciation through geographic
separation – allopatric speciation
Gene pool in a geographically continuous population is relatively homogenous

When the population become geographically discontinuous, free flow of alleles is

prevented

This causes allele frequencies at numerous genetic loci became more and more
different as new alleles independently arise by mutation at each population

Here, natural selection based on environmental conditions (climate, resources,

predators and competitors) plays a role in which adaptation is favoured

Different histories of genetic drift also affect the genetic pool of each population
Development of reproductive
isolation

Key factor: time

Genetic and phenotypic divergence between population will likely affect characters that influence
reproduction

Two possibilities
Mating is unlikely Offspring is non-viable or infertile
Mechanisms of reproductive
isolation
Prezygotic mechanism
• Operate before fertilization
• Includes timing of mating, sensitivity to pheromones, choice of
mating sites, character divergence
Postzygotic mechanism
• Operate after fertilization
• Includes prevention of proper development of offspring and
infertile offspring
If two isolated
populations are brought
back together, there will
be secondary contact
What leads to allopatric
speciation?

Physical changes in
habitat, including a
Migration, without the
river forming a new
ability to return
branch, erosion
forming a new valley
Two groups of allopatric
processes

Dispersal – when members of a species

move to a new geographical area

Vicariance – when a natural situation

arises to physically divide organisms
The northern spotted owl and
the Mexican spotted owl inhabit
geographically separate locations
with different climates and
ecosystems. The owl is an
example of incipient speciation.
(credit “northern spotted owl”:
modification of work by John
and Karen Hollingsworth,
USFWS; credit “Mexican spotted
owl”: modification of work by Bill
Radke, USFWS)

Difference between two habitats:

Temperature?
Prey?
Predator?
Habits?
Adaptive radiation

– Multiple speciation events originating from a

single species
– Example: Hawaiian honeycreeper
Speciation without
geographic
separation
– Can began with a chromosomal
error during meiosis or the
formation of an individual with
too many chromosomes
– Example: diploid (2n) plant
produce diploid gamete (2n). The
gamete cannot reproduce with
normal gamete (n) but can either
self-pollinate or reproduce with
other autopolyploid (gamete with
2n). The offspring will be a
tetraploid (4n), which differ from
the diploid parent (2n)
 Alloploidy

– Occurs when individuals from

two different species reproduce
to form a viable offspring, called
allopolyploid
– Examples: cultivated form of
wheat, cotton, and tobacco
plants
– Mostly happen in plants
Alloploidy results when two species mate to produce viable because it is usually lethal in
offspring. In the example shown, a normal gamete from one animals
species fuses with a polyploid gamete from another. Two matings
are necessary to produce viable offspring.
Another mechanism for
speciation:
Sympatric speciation
– Competition for resources
– Example:
– A species of fish live in a lake
– Population grew, as well as competition for food
– A group of fish discovered that they could eat other food in the lake, which
was available at a different depth in the lake
– The group will interact more and mate with each other and eventually
developed into a new species
Cichlid fish from Lake Apoyeque, Nicaragua, show evidence of sympatric speciation. Lake Apoyeque, a
crater lake, is 1800 years old, but genetic evidence indicates that the lake was populated only 100 years
ago by a single population of cichlid fish. Nevertheless, two populations with distinct morphologies and
diets now exist in the lake, and scientists believe these populations may be in an early stage of
speciation.
Another example:
apple maggot fly

Hypothesis: either through

Parent species only infests mutation or behavioural The offspring matured and
hawthorn trees, also use it mistake, some flies kept their preference for
to meet for mating jumped hosts and met and apple trees
mated in apple trees
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC
 Reference

– https://bio.libretexts.org/Courses/Los_Angeles_Harbor_College/Biology_3_Lecture_(Esc
andon)/10%3A_Evolution_and_Its_Processes/10.04%3A_Speciation