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A global model for the origin of species independent of geographical isolation
July 20, 2009A modern approach to the formation of diverse species is developed without boundaries and ecosystem niches
The tremendous diversity of life continues to puzzle scientists, long after the 200 years since Charles Darwin's birth. However, in recent years, consistent patterns of biodiversity have been identified over space, time organism type and geographical region.
Two views of the process of "speciation" -- the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise -- dominates evolutionary theory. The first requires a physical barrier such as a glacier, mountain or body of water to separate organisms enabling groups to diverge until they become separate species. In the second, an environment favors specific characteristics within a species, which encourages divergence as members fill different roles in an ecosystem.
In a new study, "Global patterns of speciation and diversity," just published in Nature, Les Kaufman, Boston University professor of biology and associate director of the BU Marine Program along with a team of researchers from The New England Complex Systems Institute, have collaborated and found a way to settle the debate which deals with the origin of species independent of geographic isolation.
They demonstrated, using a computer model, how diverse species can arise from the arrangement of organisms across an area, without any influence from geographical barriers or even natural selection. Over generations, the genetic distance between organisms in different regions increases, the study noted. Organisms spontaneously form groups that can no longer mate resulting in a patchwork of species across the area. Thus the number of species increases rapidly until it reaches a relatively steady state.
"Our biodiversity results provide additional evidence that species diversity arises without specific physical barriers," the study states.
The computer simulations, the authors, note showed the distribution of species formed patterns similar to those that have occurred with real organisms all around the world.
"The model we put forward in the paper lays the groundwork for more powerful tests of the role played by natural and sexual selection, as well as habitat complexity in shaping the patterns of biological diversity that we see around us today," said Kaufman. Our insights can be applied to the immense challenge that we now face -- not only to prevent the extinction of a large chunk of life, but also to prevent ourselves from quenching the very forces that fuel the continuous creation of new life forms on earth."
This study is also the fourth in a series from The New England Complex Systems Institute on the role of complexity in species coexistence and evolutionary diversification.
"One can think about the creation of species on the genetic level in the same way we think about the appearance of many patterns, including traffic jams," said Yaneer Bar-Yam, president of The New England Complex Systems Institute and a senior author of the study. "While the spatial environment may vary, specific physical barriers aren't necessary. Just as traffic jams can form from the flow of traffic itself without an accident, the formation of many species can occur as generations evolve across the organisms' spatial habitat."
Boston University Medical Center
In a new study, "Global patterns of speciation and diversity," just published in Nature, Les Kaufman, Boston University professor of biology and associate director of the BU Marine Program along with a team of researchers from The New England Complex Systems Institute, have collaborated and found a way to settle the debate which deals with the origin of species independent of geographic isolation.
They demonstrated, using a computer model, how diverse species can arise from the arrangement of organisms across an area, without any influence from geographical barriers or even natural selection. Over generations, the genetic distance between organisms in different regions increases, the study noted. Organisms spontaneously form groups that can no longer mate resulting in a patchwork of species across the area. Thus the number of species increases rapidly until it reaches a relatively steady state.
"Our biodiversity results provide additional evidence that species diversity arises without specific physical barriers," the study states.
The computer simulations, the authors, note showed the distribution of species formed patterns similar to those that have occurred with real organisms all around the world.
"The model we put forward in the paper lays the groundwork for more powerful tests of the role played by natural and sexual selection, as well as habitat complexity in shaping the patterns of biological diversity that we see around us today," said Kaufman. Our insights can be applied to the immense challenge that we now face -- not only to prevent the extinction of a large chunk of life, but also to prevent ourselves from quenching the very forces that fuel the continuous creation of new life forms on earth."
This study is also the fourth in a series from The New England Complex Systems Institute on the role of complexity in species coexistence and evolutionary diversification.
"One can think about the creation of species on the genetic level in the same way we think about the appearance of many patterns, including traffic jams," said Yaneer Bar-Yam, president of The New England Complex Systems Institute and a senior author of the study. "While the spatial environment may vary, specific physical barriers aren't necessary. Just as traffic jams can form from the flow of traffic itself without an accident, the formation of many species can occur as generations evolve across the organisms' spatial habitat."
Boston University Medical Center
Speciation Current Events and Speciation News RSSInconspicuous leaf beetles reveal environment's role in formation of new species
Unnoticed by the nearby residents of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, tiny leaf beetles that flit among the maple and willow trees in the area have just provided some of the clearest evidence yet that environmental factors play a major role in the formation of new species.
A solution to Darwin's 'mystery of the mysteries' emerges from the dark matter of the genome
Biological species are often defined on the basis of reproductive isolation. Ever since Darwin pointed out his difficulty in explaining why crosses between two species often yield sterile or inviable progeny (for instance, mules emerging from a cross between a horse and a donkey), biologists have struggled with this question.
Genome duplication responsible for more plant species than previously thought
Extra genomes appear, on average, to offer no benefit or disadvantage to plants, but still play a key role in the origin of new species, say scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and three other institutions in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Beautiful plumage: Feather color and sex start the species revolution
Faculty of 1000, the leading scientific evaluation service, has highlighted research providing evidence for the evolution of a new species.
Naming evolution's winners and losers
Mammals and many species of birds and fish are among evolution's "winners," while crocodiles, alligators and a reptile cousin of snakes known as the tuatara are among the losers, according to new research by UCLA scientists and colleagues.
For horned lizard, horns alone do not make the species
How do you recognize a new species? A thorough study of the million-year evolution of California's horned lizards, sometimes referred to as "horny toads," shows that when it comes to distinguishing such recently diverged species, the most powerful method integrates genetic, anatomical and ecological information.
Study catches 2 bird populations as they split into seperate species
A new study finds that a change in a single gene has sent two closely related bird populations on their way to becoming two distinct species.
Evolution: Crabs go deep to avoid hot water
Researchers from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, have drawn together 200 years' worth of oceanographic knowledge to investigate the distribution of a notorious deep-sea giant - the king crab.
A Genome May Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
With the costs of genome sequencing rapidly decreasing, and with the infrastructure now developed for almost anyone with access to a computer to cheaply store, access, and analyze sequence information, emphasis is increasingly being placed on ways to apply genome data to real world problems, including reducing dependency on fossil fuel.
Museum specimens aid conservation effort in Madagascar
There is a new tool for those developing conservation strategies for threatened species and landscapes: museum specimens. Richard Pearson and Christopher Raxworthy of the American Museum of Natural History dusted off a number of collections from Madagascar and used the location information associated with each species to test different ideas regarding the evolution of locally distributed endemism (unique species confined to small regions).
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Speciation by Jerry A. Coyne (Author), H. Allen Orr (Author) Over the last two decades, the study of speciation has expanded from a modest backwater of evolutionary biology into a large and vigorous discipline. Speciation is designed to provide a unified, critical and up to date overview of the field. Aimed at professional biologists, graduate students and advanced undergraduates, it covers both plants and animals and deals with all relevant areas of research, including biogeography, field work, systematics, theory, and genetic and molecular studies. It gives special emphasis to topics that are either controversial or the subject of active research, including sympatric speciation, reinforcement, the role of hybridization in speciation, the search for genes causing reproductive isolation and mounting evidence for the role of natural and sexual... |
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Speciation and Patterns of Diversity (Ecological Reviews) by Roger Butlin (Editor), Jon Bridle (Editor), Dolph Schluter (Editor) The diversity of species of plants and animals is the net result of the origin of new species by the splitting of existing lineages (speciation) and the loss of species through extinction. Why there are more species in some groups of organisms, in some places or at some times depends on the balance of these processes. This book explores the interaction between mechanisms and rates of speciation and these patterns of biological diversity, and is unusual in that it brings together the viewpoints of ecologists interested in the processes that generate patterns of diversity and evolutionary biologists who focus on mechanisms of speciation. It is intended to stimulate dialogue between these groups and so promote a more complete understanding of biological diversity. |
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Speciation in Birds by Trevor Price (Author) The process of bird speciation has fascinated biologists and bird watchers ever since Charles Darwin put forth The Origin of Species in 1859. In Speciation in Birds, Trevor Price, a University of Chicago professor and leading expert in the field, has written the most authoritative and modern synthesis on the subject to date. In clear and engaging prose and through beautiful illustrations, Price shows us why the field is as exciting and vibrant as ever. He evaluates the roles of natural selection and sexual selection. He asks how speciation contributes to some of the great patterns in species diversity such as the large number of species in the tropics, and the many endemic species on isolated islands. Throughout the book, Price emphasizes the integration of behavior, ecology, and... |
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Endless Forms: Species and Speciation by Daniel J. Howard (Editor), Stewart H. Berlocher (Editor) Speciation is one of the great themes of evolutionary biology. It is the process through which new species are born and diversity generated. Yet for many years our understanding of the process consisted of little more than a perception that if populations are isolated geographically, they will diverge genetically and may come to form new species. This situation began to change in the 1960s as an increasing number of biologists challenged the exclusivity of allopatric speciation and began to probe more deeply into the actual process by which divergence occurs and reproductive isolation is acquired. This focus on process led to many new insights, but numerous questions remain and speciation is now one of the most dynamic areas of research in modern evolutionary biology. This volume presents... |
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Frogs, Flies, and Dandelions: Speciation--The Evolution of New Species by Menno Schilthuizen (Author) The earth is home to a wild proliferation of species, millions of life-forms that come in a spectacular--and often bizarre--array of sizes, shapes, and colors. But what triggers this fantastic explosion of life? How does one species split into another? Even Charles Darwin was baffled before such questions, calling them "The Mystery of Mysteries." In this fascinating, witty, and vividly written book, Menno Schilthuizen illuminates these questions, showing how biologists and zoologists over the last two centuries have responded to them, assessing our current knowledge of species, and proposing his own solution to Darwin's mystery. Using the sometimes-vicious academic debates and the powerful personalities of scientists as background, Schilthuizen explores the meandering path of... |
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Speciation and Biogeography of Birds by Ian Newton (Author) This book should be of value to anyone interested in bird evolution and taxonomy, biogeography, distributional history, dispersal and migration patterns. It provides an up-to-date synthesis of current knowledge on species formation, and the factors influencing current distribution patterns. It draws heavily on new information on Earth history, including past glacial and other climatic changes, on new developments in molecular biology and palaeontology, and on recent studies of bird distribution and migration patterns, to produce a coherent account of the factors that have influenced bird species diversity and distribution patterns worldwide. Received the Best Bird Book of the Year award for 2004 from British Birds magazine. * Winner of... |
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Geographic Variation, Speciation and Clines. (MPB-10) (Monographs in Population Biology) by John A. Endler (Author) This book explores the origins and development of geographic variation, divergence, and speciation. |
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"Biologix: Gene Frequencies, Natural Selection, and Speciation DVD" by United Learning "Analyzes how factors such as genetic drift, gene flow, mutation and random mating lead to changes in the gene pool. " |
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Why Evolution Is True by Jerry A. Coyne (Author) "Coyne's knowledge of evolutionary biology is prodigious, his deployment of it as masterful as his touch is light." -Richard Dawkins In the current debate about creationism and intelligent design, there is an element of the controversy that is rarely mentioned-the evidence. Yet the proof of evolution by natural selection is vast, varied, and magnificent. In this succinct and accessible summary of the facts supporting the theory of natural selection, Jerry A. Coyne dispels common misunderstandings and fears about evolution and clearly confirms the scientific truth that supports this amazing process of change. Weaving together the many threads of modern work in genetics, paleontology, geology, molecular biology, and anatomy that demonstrate the "indelible stamp" of the processes... |
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