ANT 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Punctuated Equilibrium, Ring Species, Zebroid
Document Summary
Is the inability of two individuals/populations to produce fertile offspring. Liger/tigon are significantly larger than their parents and most are infertile. The amount of variation in a species that is normal. Would you be a lumper or a splitter. Lumper lumps organisms together into the same species. Two demes of a single species have gene flow back and forth interbreeding. Some sort of environmental barrier isolates the two breeds separate from each other. Genetic ad phonetic differences accumulate over time. Some develop mutations and the two breeds are no longer able to interbreed. Even with barrier removed there are so many differences between the two that you can no longer interbreed at all. Where does one species stop and another begin. Intraspecific variation can be large enough to create a reproductive barrier that can lead to eventual speciation. Relatively rapid formation and expansion of new species following the availability of new environments/niches.
