Category: speciation

.. and could occupy our time persecuting dissenters, we learn from CBC News (July 7, 2011), A female grizzly bear who lived in Ireland less than 50,000 years ago was an ancestor of all modern polar bears, suggesting “grolar” hybrids were an important part of polar bear history.The unexpected DNA evidence suggests that interbreeding between… more

At Eurekalert, we learn about “The mechanics of speciation: Model examines factors that contribute to the emergence of new species” (24-Jun-2011). And we learn that sympatric speciation – a key current claim – is “not impossible.” more

In The Language of Science and Faith, (IVP Books, 2011) explaining how microevolution can become macroevolution, they explain, If a population of some species undergoes a substantial number of such changes [genetic mutations], it can eventually turn into a new species, a process called speciation. Usually speciation requires that the population be geographically isolated from… more

In “Rewriting the textbooks: Noah’s shrinking ark” (part of a series on stuff in the textbooks that could use an airbrush), Kate Douglas (New Scientist, 23 May 2011) tackles the tangled problem of species, supposedly standing at 30 million, which she describes as “almost certainly a huge overestimate.” So not much is systematic apart from… more

This New Scientist article (Michael Marshall, 28 April 2011)  on the interbreeding of shrews despite the fact that their chromosomes have been rearranged does not use  the “biological species concept”  (it’s hard to know how to do so under the circumstances). Stuck for a term, Marshall calls the differently arranged groups “races” instead. Anyway, Searle… more

British physicist David Tyler discusses the recent claims for the possibility of new species of finch developing on the famous Galapagos Islands – a possibility because the authors don’t think they are there yet, and they may never be. Tyler explains, An ecological theory of speciation but no support for Darwinism The Galapagos Islands have… more

At Wired Science, we are informed “Birth of New Species Witnessed by Scientists” (November 16, 2009): On one of the Galapagos islands whose finches shaped the theories of a young Charles Darwin, biologists have witnessed that elusive moment when a single species splits in two. In many ways, the split followed predictable patterns, requiring a… more