BIOLOGY Volume 3 - A Guide to General Biology - 2004

27. MECHANISMS OF SPECIATION

27.7. Speciation

Speciation is the evolutionary process by which new species arise from pre-existing ones. New species may originate from a single ancestral species (intraspecific speciation) or, as frequently occurs in many flowering plants, two different species may give rise to a new species via (interspecific Hybridization). When intraspecific speciation occurs under conditions of spatial isolation between populations, it is referred to as allopatric speciation. Conversely, if the process takes place while the populations inhabit the same geographic region, it is known as sympatric speciation.

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