Question

Answer the question in regards to Botany;

Distinguish among the biological, morphological, and phylogenetic species concepts.

Distinguish between allopatric and sympatric speciation.

Briefly describe the processes of allopolyploidy, autopolyploidy, and recombination speciation.

Answer 1

Biological species - The same species are capable of interbreeding, producing viable offspring.

It does not always work, e.g. fossils, asexual reproducing organisms

Most commonly used and accepted

Morphological species – a species by body shape and other structural features.

It is applied to both asexual and sexual organisms.

It applies to all organisms and fossils.

Phylogenetic species – The smallest group of individuals with a common ancestor

It applies to all organisms and fossils

But there is a debate over how different species must be from each other

Allopatric speciation – It is based on the geographic isolation. Barrier lead to change in population. The separated populations may evolve independently through mutation, natural selection and genetic drift.

Sympatric speciation – It is based on the geographically overlapping populations.

Autopolyploid - There is an additional set of chromosomes, which may be from a parent or identical parental species. It is due to failure of cell division after chromosome duplication.

Allopolyploid - two different species combined together to form a new species. Eg. Hybrid varities in plants it makes a different species from the parent species.