Contrariando Darwin: a especiação se dá num vapt, vupt evolutivo

Nature
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Published online 9 December 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.1134

New species evolve in bursts

Red Queen hypothesis of gradual evolution undermined.

Kerri Smith

New species might arise as a result of single rare events, rather than through the gradual accumulation of many small changes over time, according to a study of thousands of species and their evolutionary family trees.

This contradicts a widely accepted theory of how speciation occurs: that species are continually changing to keep pace with their environment, and that new species emerge as these changes accrue. Known as the 'Red Queen' hypothesis, it is named after the character in Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There who tells a surprised Alice: "Here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."

The Red Queen hypothesis rests on the idea that species must continuously evolve just to hang on to their ecological niche. That gradual evolution is driven by the constant genetic churn of sexual selection.
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NOTA IMPERTINENTE DESTE BLOGGER:

Ué, mas alguém já sabe o que é uma espécie???