Adaptation and Speciation

Prepared by:
JONATHAN D. GAMEZ
BPS Faculty
• An inherited characteristic that helps an
organism to survive long enough to
reproduce more successfully in its
changing environment and can either be
structural, behavioral or physiological.
• Anything that helps an organism in its
environment is an adaptation.
• It also refers to the ability of living things
to adjust to different conditions within
their environments.
Structural adaptation: tropism
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What can you say about this picture?
 Speciation
• Formation of new and distinct species
in the course of evolution .
• Involves splitting of a single
evolutionary lineage into two or
more genetically independent
lineages.
• The biologist Orator Fuller Cook
coined the term “speciation” in
1906.
 Anagenesis

• also known as phyletic

transformation.
• It is the process in which a
species, gradually
accumulating change,
eventually becomes
sufficiently distinct from its
ancestral form without
branching or splitting .
 Cladogenesis

• Is an evolutionary splitting
event where a parent species
splits into two distinct
species, forming a clade.
 Mechanisms of speciation

• Assortative mating
• Reinforcement
• Selection
• Sexual selection
• Polyploidy
 1. Assortative mating
• It is a mating pattern and a form of
sexual selection in which
individuals with similar phenotypes
mate with one another more
frequently than would be expected
under a random mating pattern.
• Some examples of similar
phenotypes body size, skin
coloration/pigmentation, and age.
 2. Reinforcement

• A process of speciation where pre-zygotic isolation is enhanced by natural

selection against hybrids between two populations of a species.
• The idea was developed by Alfred Russel Wallace and it is also referred as
the “Wallace effect”.
 3. Natural selection

• Charles Darwin popularized the term "natural selection".

• Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals
due to differences in phenotype.
• It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in heritable traits of a
population over time.
• This occurs because random mutations arise in the genome of an individual
organism, and offspring can inherit such mutations.
 4. Sexual selection

• Mode of natural selection where members of one biological sex choose

mates of the other sex to mate with (intersexual selection), and compete
with members of the same sex for access to members of the opposite sex
(intrasexual selection).
• These two forms of selection mean that some individuals have better
reproductive success than others within a population either from being more
attractive or preferring more attractive partners to produce offspring.
 5. Polyploidy

• Polyploid cells and organisms are those containing more than two paired
(homologous) sets of chromosomes.
• Most species whose cells have nuclei in diploid condition, meaning they
have two sets of chromosomes, one set inherited from each parent.
• Polyploidy is found in some organisms and is especially common in
plants.
 4 Broad Categories of Speciation

• Allopatric speciation
• Peripatric speciation
• Parapatric speciation
• Sympatric speciation
 Allopatric Speciation

• Occurs when a population is split into two geographically isolated

populations.
• Each population is then exposed to different selective pressures that result
in genotypic and phenotypic changes.
• When they contact again they would be unable to reproduce.
• Allopatric speciation (from the ancient Greek allos- meaning "other“ and
patris- meaning "fatherland").
• It is also referred as geographic speciation.
 Peripatric Speciation

• Also occurs when a single population is

physically split into two isolated populations,
but this term is used when one population is
much smaller than the other.
 Parapatric Speciation

• Occurs when a population is in the process of splitting , due

to some nonphysical factor but continue to overlap.
• Each part of the population has its own ecological niche.
• The diverging members might occasionally come into
contact but their offspring are not well suited for either niche.
• Over time, the populations develop into two different species
each suited for their own niche, and eventually they will the
ability to reproduce with each other.
 Sympatric Speciation

• Etymologically, sympatry is derived from

the Greek roots sym ("together") and patriς
("homeland").
• The term was invented by Poulton in 1904.
• Occurs when a single population diverges
into two while inhabiting the same physical
space.
• This usually occurs as a result of sexual
selection.
The difference between Sympatric and Allopatric
 Artificial speciation
• New species have been created by domesticated animal husbandry, but the
initial dates and methods of the initiation of such species are not clear.
 Hybrid speciation

Hybrid speciation is a form of speciation where

hybridization between two different species leads to a
new species, reproductively isolated from the parent
species.