Question

Suppose a planet was discovered with life and you were a member of a team of scientists who were selected to study these new life forms. During your analyses of fossils from this new planet you discovered that speciation rates appear to be 10 times faster than on Earth. Formulate a series of hypotheses (at least 5) for why speciation might be faster on the newly discovered planet. Each hypothesis should include an explanation of how the mechanism would foster more rapid speciation.

Answer 1

1. The geographic isolation occurs fastly that enough to increase speciation rate.

Geographic isolation is a common way for the process of speciation to begin such as rivers changes, continents drift, mountains rise, organisms migrate.

2. Reduced gene flow increase rapid speciation.

The speciation might happen in a population with no specific extrinsic barrier to gene flow is present.

3. Rapid polyploidy increases speciation rate.

Polyploidy cause rapid speciation such as by doubling of chromosome number, the result is progeny which are immediately reproductively isolated from the parent population.   

4. Organisms have survival advantages and that increases rapid speciation.

Survival advantages increases speciation. For example, some species enjoy camouflage, and rapid reproduction as the survival advantage.

5. The occurrence of rapid natural selection leads the increased speciation rate in the new planet.

Due to some natural incidents, genetic variations occurs in new individuals, which led to evolving of new species.