Ch 24: origin of species • What is a species? • Species Concepts – Morphological – Biological • Isolating mechanisms and hybridization – Other Species Concepts • How do new species arise? – Allopatric vs. sympatric speciation • What is the tempo of speciation? – Punctuated equilibrium model and fossil record • How can new, complex structures evolve? What is a species? Species • A Latin word meaning “kind” or “type” • There are many kinds of living thing! • Biologists mean something special by the word species One species or two? Species Concepts • Our ideas about how best to define a species have changed over time. • If speciation is occurring, no species concept will “work” all the time - you should always be able to find arguable forms. Morphological Species Concept • morphology = shape or appearance – Collect a type specimen – Others that are similar to the type are the same species – Very widely used (e.g., insects) – Problem - doesn’t take intraspecific variation into account - how similar is similar enough? Are the similarities we notice the important ones? Biological Species Concept • Formulated by Ernst Mayr: Ornithologist; one of the contributors to the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis • Species are populations or groups of populations whose members have the potential to interbreed in the wild and produce viable, fertile offspring. (1942) • Rationale: hybridization implies mixing species are distinct because they don’t mix • Advantage: the organisms decide themselves how different is different enough Reproductive isolation • What keeps different species from interbreeding? (not counting geography) – Prezygotic barriers • Before mating or fertilization – Postzygotic barriers • After mating or fertilization • What’s a zygote? Prezygotic barriers (1) • Habitat isolation: species occupy different habitats in the same geographic area Three-spined stickleback species differ by lake habitat: benthic vs. pelagic zones Prezygotic barriers (2) • Breeding behavior -> Prezygotic barriers (3) • Temporal isolation: species reproduce at different times in the same geographic area Prezygotic barriers (4) • Mechanical isolation: species have incompatible anatomy Prezygotic barriers (5) • Gametic isolation: species have gametes that recognize only their own species Postzygotic barriers • Reduced viablility: embryos die or fail to develop • Hybrid offspring born, but have reduced viability or fertility • Hybrid breakdown: offspring of hybrids have reduced survival or fertility Horse + donkey = sterile mule mom dad Reproductive isolation • Prezygotic barriers • Postzygotic barriers Problems with Biological Species Concept • The Biological Species Concept works very well with some taxa (birds, for instance) but.. • Information on hybridization lacking for most species ? X Problems with Biological Species Concept (2) • In some groups (oak trees, for instance, and many other plants) hybridization between what seem to be quite different species is common. Problems with Biological Species Concept (3) • In other groups (some birds), hybridization at least happens occasionally - a little mixing doesn’t always break down differences between species Alternative species concepts • Phylogenetic species concept - minimum diagnosible unit • Ecological Species Concept - a set of organisms adapted to a particular set of resources, called a niche, in the environment • All these species concepts agree most of the time - they differ mostly when applied to borderline or poorly understood cases. Speciation • Speciation - when one species splits into two (aka cladogenesis) • How does it happen? • Allopatric vs. sympatric speciation Modes of speciation Fig. 24.6 Allopatric Speciation • Allopatry - “different fatherlands” – 1. One species is divided into two isolated populations in two geographic regions – 2. The two populations evolve in different directions while apart – 3. Isolating mechanisms evolve in the two groups – 4. The two populations are unable to breed with each other when they reconnect - they are now two separate species Allopatric speciation in ground squirrels Sympatric Speciation • Sympatry = living in the same place • How could individuals evolve reproductive barriers to others in a local, interbreeding population? • Theoretically possible, but evidence suggests it’s rare at best • Organisms can undergo sympatric speciation by producing polyploid offspring Speciation by production of tetraploids Sympatric Speciation (1) Tree Frogs Hyla chrysocelis Hyla versicolor Sympatric speciation (2) • Mate choice by cichlids Pundamilia pundamilia Pundamilia nyererei Fig. 24.16 Normal light Monochromatic light Adaptive radiation • Example? Fig. 24.11 Is speciation gradual or sudden? • Paleontologists have a hard time seeing gradual change in the fossil record. More often, a form appears suddenly, then, after persisting for some eons, disappears from the fossil record just as suddenly. • Why is this? • Niles Eldredge and Stephen Gould proposed that formation of new species happened rather quickly, and that species, once formed, changed little until they went extinct. • This model was called punctuated equilibrium by Eldredge and Gould. later Earlier So are Gould and Eldredge right? • The evidence for equilibria comes from the fossil record only - no living species has shown any resistance to change under artificial selection. • The nature of the fossil record: small slices of time are preserved. Huge slices are lost. • Nobody believes that the tempo of evolution is absolutely constant. later earlier later Earlier Evolutionary Novelties • If natural selection is essentially a “weeding” process, eliminating the less fit, how does a complex new structure like an eye develop? • This is one of the arguments of anti-evolution religious fundamentalists: – it’s impossible that natural selection acting on chance mutations could gradually produce something so complex and perfect as an eye • Is it really impossible, though? What would have to happen? Question: How do complex structures evolve? • Answer: gradually • Important principles: – Natural selection is not goal-directed, and cannot anticipate future needs – Evolutionary novelties arise by modification of preexisting structures – All intermediate steps must be beneficial to the organism - like working on an engine while it is running. • So for novel complex structures to arise by natural selection – 1. Each step must be a plausible small minor modification of the one before it – 2. Each step must be an improvement on the one before it A simple patch of pigmented cells detects light If a depression forms with the pigment cells in it, can detect direction of light source A depression with a small opening allows formation of images on the light-sensing cells A lens within the eye allows better focussing and allows more light to enter A lens that can change shape allows near and far focussing Is it plausible? • Could these different stages have existed? • Would they each give their owners an advantage?