Ch 22: The Origin of Species Flashcards
What is a species?
a population whose members have the potential to interbreed in nature, and produce viable, fertile offspring, but do not produce viable, fertile offspring with members of other such groups.
Species is Latin for…
…“kind” or “appearance”.
There are 3 major concepts by which we can categorize species.
Morphological species concept –
(defined by structural features)
Phylogenetic species concept (this is not in the textbook)-
Species are defined by position on a cladogram. They are the tips of the phylogenetic trees.
Biological species concept–
Species are populations that interbreed, and are reproductively isolated from other such groups.
What are cryptic species?
Species which look alike, but do not/cannot interbreed.
By definition, which species concept cannot identify cryptic species?
the morphological concept
In this class, we are going to rely on the biological species concept.
Plant ecologists don’t like this concept, bc plants don’t act like animals (birds more specifically), which is where this concept came from.
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Reproductive isolation is a barrier to ____ ____.
gene flow
What are the 3 examples of prezygotic (before the zygote forms) barriers?
habitat isolation – example of flies which breed only on specific kinds of fruit
temporal isolation – reproduce at different times of the year
behavioral isolation – courtship behaviors (ex of the blue-footed booby. These birds only mate with birds with blue feet, not other colors.) “Courtship” is the key word.
What is an autopolyploid?
(from the Greek autos, “self”) is an individual that has more than two chromosome sets that are all derived from a single species. In plants, for example, a failure of cell division could double a cell’s chromosome number from the diploid number (2n) to a tetraploid number (4n).
Most causes of speciation are relatively slow, in that the differences separating species take many generations to accrue and establish reproductive isolation. Which mechanism is most likely to produce a species in just a few generations?
Polyploidy would be most likely to produce a species in a few generations. A polyploid individual is one possessing extra sets of chromosomes.
Most such hybrids are sterile because…..
However, an infertile hybrid may be able to propagate itself asexually (as many plants can do).
….the set of chromosomes from one species cannot pair during meiosis with the set of chromosomes from the other species.
In subsequent generations, various mechanisms can change a sterile hybrid into a fertile polyploid called an __________. The _____________ are fertile when mating with each other but cannot interbreed with either parent species; thus, they represent a new biological species.
allopolyploid
allopolyploids
Define reproductive isolation.
The existence of biological barriers that impede members of two species from interbreeding and producing viable, fertile offspring.
p. 441
Biological reproductive barriers such as these are intrinsic to the organisms themselves. Hence, it is biological barriers that can prevent interbreeding when members of different populations come into contact with one another. Mechanical, behavioral, gametic, and temporal isolation are all biological reproductive barriers and intrinsic to organisms themselves.
What is an example of something that is NOT a type of intrinsic reproductive isolation?
geographic isolation
_________ speciation can occur by a number of different mechanisms, including:
polyploidy
habitat differentiation
female male preference
host switching
Sympatric