B. H. Manners

Hello,


Would any of you be kind enough to provide links to observed cases of speciazation and/or evolution. I am going to be involved in some discussions and would appreciate the help.

trunks2k

this thread belongs in the evolution/creation section.

but either way:

<a href="http://www.talkorigins.org" target="_blank">www.talkorigins.org</a> is a fantastic website and should have what you are looking for.

Secular Pinoy

<a href="http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/" target="_blank">29+ Evidences for Macroevolution</a>

B. H. Manners

Thanks to everyone who responded to my question.

Neruda

Here are some good examples:

From Dr. Saladin:

"The actual emergence of a new species is rarely observed in nature, because even speciation that is almost instantaneous on an evolutionary scale may easily take a few thousand years. However, there are a number of cases of new species evolving even in the 20th century.
For example, in 1916 a collector imported three rock wallabies from Australia to Oahu, Hawaii. A pack of dogs broke into the compound and killed one of them, but the other two escaped and established a wild population that now numbers about 250 individuals, living in the steep dry cliffs of the Kalihi Valley. Since then, the Hawaiian wallabies have become smaller and lighter-colored than the Australian species, their proteins have changed, they've have evolved a new liver enzyme enabling them to feed on Hawaiian plants that are toxic to the Australian rock wallaby, and they're no longer interfertile with the Australian form. By biological definition, they're now a new species - a species that evolved in less than 60 years.
Here in the Southeast we're plagued by the fire ant, Solenopsis wagneri, which was introduced from South America. It's been here in the U.S. for about 80 years, and already it can no longer interbreed with the South American fire ants. In other words, this too has become a new species.
There are many other instances within the past century in which new species have been seen to come into existence, including primroses, radishes, poppies, nettles, ferns, marsh grasses, various flies, and a crustacean not far from Dr. Gish's neighborhood of San Diego.
There are other cases of conclusive evidence of new species arising within a few thousand years. In Hawaii, again, there are five species of moths in the genus Hedylepta that feed on nothing but bananas, although they're closely related to other Hawaiian moths that feed on other plants. Well, bananas didn't exist in Hawaii until a thousand years ago, when the Polynesian colonists introduced them-so in 1,000 years, we have five new species evolving to take advantage of a new food.
In other words, evolution isn't just ancient history; it's also recent history, and it is also today's news. It's not just a conjecture in the minds of scientists, and not merely a conclusion drawn from the remains of extinct organisms. Evolution is real; it is something going on all around us, all the time."

I think these next two were copied from the talk.origins archives:
"In the genus Tragopogon (a plant genus consisting mostly of diploids), two new species (T. mirus and T. miscellus) have evolved. This occured within the past 50-60 years. The new species are allopolyploid descendents of two separate diploid parent species.

An unidentified bacterium underwent a major morphological change when grown in the presence of a ciliate predator. This bacterium's normal morphology is a short (1.5 uM) rod. After 8 - 10 weeks of growing with the predator it assumed the form of long (20 uM) cells. These cells have no cross walls. Filaments of this type have also been produced under circumstances similar to Boraas' induction of multicellularity in Chlorella. Multicellularity has also been produced in unicellular bacterial by predation. In this study, growth in the presence of protozoal grazers resulted in the production of chains of bacterial cells."

One last one: in Death Valley, there are natural springs with small, minnow-sized fish in them (called pupfish). When a small population of these fish are removed from the larger population, as is common, they change so fast that in only a few generations they cannot interbreed with the original population. This produces new species and sub-species very rapidly.

hope this helps!