[PatrickHenry]

Underlining and bold font added by your humble poster. Nice pic of Laura Reed is in the original article.

I can already anticipate the objections: "But they can't reproduce it in the lab!" Yes, but if something is done in the lab, the objection is that it can't be evidence of evolution because it's "designed." So whatcha gonna do?

[PatrickHenry]

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[AntiGuv]

Very intriguing! Wouldn't it be fascinating if speciation ultimately depends on a very limited number of particular genes? Perhaps it's just my perspective of things, but it seems to me that sympatric speciation has gained credence in recent years. I've always thought it was something worth examining in greater detail, because if geographical isolation is responsible for most (if not all) speciation, then why are so many very closely related species living in overlapping ranges?

This would give a milder boost to the concept of parallel speciation as well.

[GSlob]

The clearest evidence for evolution are the creationists, for they have not evolved.

[aardvark1]

So let's see if I followed the argument. These two different kinds of flies mated which normally do not mate and produced a horse...no, a cactus...no, a snake...no, another fly. Imagine that! Evolution is something, eh?

[Junior]

But, but, but, they're still the same KIND! /creo mode

[anguish]

So whatcha gonna do?

Well, what creos need to do is obvious:

[VadeRetro]

Nice pic of Laura Reed is in the original article.

You can see she's got quite a mind.

[aruanan]

I can already anticipate the objections: "But they can't reproduce it in the lab!" Yes, but if something is done in the lab, the objection is that it can't be evidence of evolution because it's "designed." So whatcha gonna do?

Masterful, though sad, wielding of the broad brush.

[familyofman]

This has nothing to do with evolution - there is no fossil record of the changes noted & you can't prove anything concerning evolution without a complete fossil record of the changes (including all the 'steps' involved). There also must be some higher 'intelligence' guiding the process and design otherwise it would never happen.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Inverse Limbo alert.

[jigsaw]

The seeds of speciation are sown when distinct factions of a species stop reproducing
with one another. When the two groups can no longer interbreed, or just prefer not
to, they stop exchanging genes and eventually go their own evolutionary ways, thus
forming separate species.

Reminds me of the gays. Someday there'll be a species called Homo Gaypiens.

[Michael_Michaelangelo]

From the article:

"Whether the two closely related fruitfly populations, designated Drosophila mojavensis and Drosophila arizonae, represent one species or two is still debatable among biologists"

And...

"biologists haven't been able to put their finger on just what initiates the reproductive isolation."

And...

"Further experiments demonstrated that the sterility trait is caused by more than one genetic change. "I think there are many genes--4 or 5 probably, maybe many more," Reed predicted."

And...

"There's a huge amount of biodiversity out there, and we don't know where it comes from."

Looks like there is still plenty of research to do.

[mikegi]

I'm not totally clear on the theory here. Is it the changes in the female fly's genes that causes the sterile hybrid or is it the male's??? You'd have to use one male and several females then several males and one female to distinguish the difference. The text isn't clear on this.

[John O]

When the two groups can no longer interbreed, or just prefer not to, they stop exchanging genes and eventually go their own evolutionary ways, thus forming separate species.

According to this Negros and Caucasians in the early 1700's were different species. But then we became one species again in the 1960's.

Either they neeed to do a lot more work on this or they have to phrase things much better

[MEGoody]

"The first eyewitness to the birth of a new species may be a University of Arizona graduate student."

Huh? The first time this has been witnessed? Well, MAYBE witnessed?

Gee, I've been repeatedly told by those adhering to evolutionary theory that this has been observed countless times.

Guess they lied.