"A new species develops if a population which has become geographically isolated from its parental species acquires during this period of isolation characters which promote or guarantee reproductive ...

There has been a long-standing emphasis in speciation research on describing conditions that may facilitate the build-up of premating isolation when diverging populations are undergoing gene flow. The ...

A new study of interbreeding between two species of howler monkeys in Mexico is yielding insights into the forces that drive the evolution of new species. A new University of Michigan study of ...

When two organisms typically do not interbreed with one another, they are considered different species. But what are the reproductive barriers that isolate one population from another? Hear the ...

A genetic study of island lizards shows that even those that have been geographically isolated for many millions of years have not evolved into separate species as predicted by conventional ...

Earth is home to a remarkable variety of organisms, which come in all shapes and sizes. Many species have developed special traits to ensure their survival and reproduction in a particular environment ...

Mayr was well known for his championship of the biological species concept and for asserting a predominant role for the geographic separation of populations in the diversification process that gives ...

This process, called "reinforcement", prevents closely related species from interbreeding thus driving them further apart genetically and promoting speciation. Although scientists have speculated ...

Understanding the relative importance of reproductive isolating mechanisms across the speciation continuum remains an outstanding challenge in evolutionary biology. Here, we examine a common isolating ...