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Speciation is the process by which a single species gives rise to two daughter species, which are genetically distinct and eventually unable to interbreed. Speciation can occur as a result of factors such as geographical isolation, ecological divergence or sexual selection.
Do species with large ranges diversify faster? While there have been some studies suggesting the opposite pattern, this study indicates that large-ranged mammals indeed diversify faster in general, but that there are important geographic domains deviating from this pattern.
Transcriptomic analyses in the offspring of Arctic charr morphs (Salvelinus alpinus) and their hybrids at two stages of cranial development suggest that gene expression variance can rapidly diverge in sympatry and is conditioned by dominance patterns.
common assumption of evolution is that of an ecological limit to species diversity. This study tests whether sympatry with closely-related species leads to decreasing speciation rates. They find that, for terrestrial vertebrates, the probability of speciation seems to be unaffected by the number of other species of that lineage already present
Luis Saraiva recalls a 1997 paper by Krings et al., which reports the sequencing of mitochondrial Neanderthal DNA extracted from a 40,000-year-old bone, enabling the direct study of the relationship between ancient and modern humans.
Analysis of Phanerozoic vertebrate community richness suggests there have been constraints on tetrapod diversity dynamics over much of their evolutionary history.
Genomes of eight populations of the copepod Tigriopus californicus show a correlation between rapid mitochondrial evolution and compensatory nuclear evolution, suggesting that mitonuclear incompatibilities might drive speciation in this system.
Allowing biogeographical data to evolve at varying rates on a globe, not a plane, reveals new insights into the origin and dispersal of dinosaurs. The method could also be applied to manifold organisms, from humans to influenza viruses.
