Speciation Events
Speciation is a term that was coined by Orator F. Cook, and it refers to the evolution process whereby new species are formed or arise (Matzke, 2014). The process of speciation takes place when a group of a particular species is separated from other members of the species and is forced to developed or create their unique features or characters. As such, the demands of the different environments, as well as the characteristics of the members of the newly formed group, will differentiate the species from the original group or their ancestors. There are distinct examples of speciation events that resulted from geographic and then to reproductive isolation.
The best-known example of speciation events that resulted from geographic and them reproductive isolation is the separation of the Galapagos finch. The varied species of the Galapagos finch live in dissimilar Islands in Galapagos Archipelago, which is located in the Pacific Ocean, South America. Nonetheless, the birds are isolated from each by the Ocean. For millions of years, the bird species have given birth to a different species from their ancestors, making them have unique beak based on the kind of food that they eat (Tonnis et al., 2005). One group of finches have long but thin beaks, which can probe into Cactus flowers devoid of the bird not scarred by the cactus spines. On the other hand, another group of finches has medium-sized beaks than enables them to catch and hold insects. Since the birds are isolated from each other, they do not breed with each other and have developed a unique species that have unique features through a process called allopatric speciation. Therefore, the genetic interchange that takes place between finches is stopped when a group of the birds becomes isolated, thereby making the separate flock to become a different species.
References
Matzke, N. J. (2014). Model selection in historical biogeography reveals that founder-event speciation is a crucial process in island clades. Systematic Biology, 63(6), 951-970.
Tonnis, B., Grant, P. R., Grant, B. R., &Petren, K. (2005). Habitat selection and ecological speciation in Galápagos warbler finches (Certhideaolivacea and Certhideafusca). Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 272(1565), 819-826.