"Isolation, also, is an important element in the process of natural selection." Charles Darwin, Origin of Species 1st edition (on Kindle)
Darwin is outlining allopatric speciation. If you asked me before this reading who was responsible for bringing allopatric speciation to the public I would have said Ernst Mayr - the grumpy grandpa of evolution. Mayr is also a proponent of the Biological Species Concept. So here I see a problem. In one case geographic isolation is associated with speciation because populations that are not interbreeding because of circumstances are considered going through speciation - regardless of whether or not those populations can interbreed. But Mayr also needs reproductive isolation to evolve populations to be considered different species. I don't like it.
"Isolation, also, is an important element in the process of natural selection." Charles Darwin, Origin of Species 1st edition (on Kindle)
Darwin is outlining allopatric speciation. If you asked me before this reading who was responsible for bringing allopatric speciation to the public I would have said Ernst Mayr - the grumpy grandpa of evolution. Mayr is also a proponent of the Biological Species Concept. So here I see a problem. In one case geographic isolation is associated with speciation because populations that are not interbreeding because of circumstances are considered going through speciation - regardless of whether or not those populations can interbreed. But Mayr also needs reproductive isolation to evolve populations to be considered different species. I don't like it.
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