landscape genetics

tags: researchblogging.org, evolution, speciation, ring species, phylogeography, landscape genetics, crimson rosella, Platycercus elegans, parrots, birds, Australia Crimson Rosella, Platycercus elegans. Image: Australian Broadcasting Corporation. One of the challenges facing those who believe that evolution cannot create new species is explaining the problem of "ring species." Ring species are a group of geographically connected populations that can interbreed with nearby populations, but cannot breed with those populations that exist at each end of the cline (figure A). These populations…