[DittoJed2]

It is not a misconception. In order to become two kinds of species that can not overlap, then new genetic information would have to be added to enough of one group to cause them to go off in an entirely different direction. You can't just have Norm's grandson getting a mutation, moving to Omaha and "eventually" starting a new colony that can't mate with Norm's other offspring at all. First, the grandson would have to have had one strong mutation to withstand the natural weeding out process. Also, mutations of this kind dont tend to affect an entire species and they don't make them turn into different kinds of animals. The dinosaur who runs around and gets "Frayed scales" may have messed up scales, but he doesn't get feathers, became a debatably warm-blooded creature, and take to flight.

Finally, the fossil record does not support what you are saying. The best you have is a few highly disputed examples of what you call transitional species based upon external similarities. I can see external similarities between a giraffe and a lot of long-necked dinosaurs, but that doesn't mean they had the same ancestor.

[Junior]

Okay, I'm not sure I made myself clear. "Norm" is the point about which the species clusters. No individual member of the species ups and mutates so much that he cannot breed with the rest of the species. Mutations make their way through a population. Sometimes when a species is split in two (usually by geography), the mutations which accumulate in the two separate populations make it eventually impossible for those populations to ever again interbreed.