What are conditions of speciation?

Speciation is when one species evolves into two or more species. There are two mechanisms by which speciation can occur. The first is allopatric speciation. This is where a species is split into two populations by a geographical barrier for an immense period of time. This barrier can be an ocean, a mountain range, a canyon, or anything else that would keep two populations from interbreeding.

The second mechanism is called sympatric speciation. This occurs when a new species arises within the parent population. This type of speciation can occur for many reasons. Sometimes a group of the population will search for food in other habitats and they have to adapt to the new challenges. Another possibility is if some of the females start to choose mates based on certain characteristics and others do not. The sexual selection will lead to new characteristics, and a new species in a relative short period of time. The last condition for this mechanism is large genetic variation. Sometimes meiOSis, or mitosis does not occur properly and this leads to extra chromosomes in an organism. When this happens, the organism can only reproduce with others that have the same number of chromosomes. This leads to a new species within the parent population.