from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. The evolutionary formation of new biological species, usually by the division of a single species into two or more genetically distinct ones.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. The process by which new distinct species evolve.
- n. The formation of different (inorganic) species, for example in a gas.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. the evolution of a biological species
The actual moment when a "daughter" species can (or will) no longer cross-breed with the population from which it sprang (the definition of speciation) is almost impossible to pinpoint, let alone to witness.
Ken Miller, if he really wanted to, could cite 'intelligent cause' to explain speciation – and then cite any and all of the mainstream proposals as mechanism.
If I understand front loading at all (please correct any misapprehension), the information necessary to produce speciation is already present from being pre-loaded and waiting for the appropriate moment to kick in.
Alan Fox: If I understand front loading at all (please correct any misapprehension), the information necessary to produce speciation is already present from being pre-loaded and waiting for the appropriate moment to kick in.
Although there are differences in the definition of species that complicate a claim of speciation, it has not been any part of my claim that speciation is excluded.
Those macroevolutionary mechanisms that are involved in speciation and above fit right in with the theory.
That means that the same processes which result in speciation also result in the creation of different genera, families, orders, etc. (that is, "higher taxa" than species).
The importance of recent ice ages in speciation: a failed paradigm.
Two views of the process of "speciation" -- the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise -- dominates evolutionary theory.
This intellectual task is not one of "generalization", but rather one of "speciation" -- specification of the broad range of variation that is possible within historical reality.