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Science 13 September 1996:
Vol. 273. no. 5281, pp. 1496 - 1499
DOI: 10.1126/science.273.5281.1496a
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Special News Report

Ann Gibbons

Evolutionists once believed that new species form only after two populations are separated by a physical barrier. Now, however, the evidence that new species can form right beside their parent populations is so strong that the debate is less over whether this process, called sympatric speciation, can take place than over how often and under what conditions. The case of a new variety of fruit fly that formed when one population began feeding and mating on apples instead of hawthorn fruit has convinced some biologists that sympatric speciation is a major factor behind the diverse array of plant-feeding insects and freshwater fish that exists today.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)