Sorry, but when you deny that speciation has been observed, the meaning of the term 'speciation' is obviously relevant. And what it means is that, when the genetic composition of a given population has come to diverge from that of another population so much that gene flow between the populations ceases, speciation is said to have occurred. And this has been observed repeatedly, as the talkorigins article I linked to demonstrates.
Do it with a horsefly and you might have my attention.
I don't know about horseflies, but as someone else pointed out above, speciation has been forced in fruit flies. It also appears to be naturally occurring before our eyes in the tephritid fly Rhagoletis pomonella, which is diversifying into a wide range of hosts (pears, cherries, roses) with different races or subspecies specializing on each. In time these are expected to separate into distinct species, meaning that genes can no longer flow between them. Look it up.
Speciation occurs all the time, but usually on a time scale of thousands or at the very least hundreds of years, which makes it remarkable that there are any known instances of real-time speciation. But there are, as I have shown.
Sorry, but when you deny that speciation has been observed, the meaning of the term 'speciation' is obviously relevant.
You guys need to check out #507 & #509
'''Sorry, but when you deny that speciation has been observed, the meaning of the term 'speciation' is obviously relevant. '''
Except, I did not mention the word speciation.
I did not suggest that genetic lines of minute life-forms do not diverge with regard to their ability to reproduce. I said none of that.
I said that nobody has demonstrated new species to evolve.
Simply *claiming* a new species has evolved, based upon an arbitrary and self-serving definition of the word "species" is not convincing.
Even with your fruit fly argument, there is no proof that anything other than a different race of fruitfly has been formed. Speculation as to whether such an experiment will result in a new "species" is fruitless.