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I know a mechanism that prevents speciation: make sure the population interbreeds well.
The special thing about ring species is that the populations on the ends of the ring are unable to interbreed. This causes them to speciate, even though (overlapping) populations along the ring remain able to interbreed.
Of course even with an interbreeding population, if you could somehow take an individual from x generations before, you would find they are unable to breed because the population as a whole has drifted.
(to be honest, I am a layman, but this is my understanding of the process)
Permalink Sun, 20 Apr 2008 14:33:00 UTC | #156577