III. Islands as "natural laboratories" for exploring speciation We all know how much of an influence the juxtaposition of variation and similarity among islands in the Galapagos archipelago played in ...

Habitat variation may also contribute to local adaptation ... which is a necessary precursor to speciation. Future studies that incorporate ecological, behavioral, and genetic data hold great ...

The role of sexual selection in speciation. A view that is becoming increasingly popular is that sexual selection, or selection related to variation in reproductive success, plays a role in ...

Often this type of speciation occurs in three steps ... so that even if some variation occurs, it is limited by this "gene flow." But gene flow is interrupted if the population becomes divided ...

Many factors can cause populations to diverge genetically (e.g., genetic drift, natural selection, sexual selection). Understanding the relative roles of these factors in generating contemporary ...

Variation also helps organisms adapt to their environment, can drive speciation, and has led to the incredible biodiversity we see today. Developmental pathways are the products of past evolution, yet ...

Speciation is where populations become extremely ... of finches Darwin's observations revealed that the finches had wide variations in their size, beaks and claws depending on which island he ...