Fascinating! The idea of isolation leading to divergence isn't new (just ask Darwin's finches), but these timeframes bring climate and continental geology into the equation.
It leads me to wonder what happens when the sea level rises again and these isolated populations start encountering each other. With complete speciation it's competion time, but with sub-speciation and at least some sexual compatibility, that would lead to hybrids trying out new gene combinations. Has anyone looked at that de-isolation period? Competion (dominance and extiction) vs hybrid vigor (trait combination or sudden emergence of a new species with an "evolutionary leap"). That would be an interesting project!
We kind of did that, right? Homo was wandering and speciating and sub-speciating all over the place. Then they started running into each other and then competing and/or sharing genes. Like I said... fascinating! Thanks.
Speciation among Homo over the last ~800 thousand years is exactly where my mind went. The pulsed climate hypothesis states some similar ideas but not necessarily in terms of isolation. I think this work is interesting if we consider “continental” isolation; sapiens in Africa, Neanderthals in Europe, Denisovans in Asia.
Fascinating! The idea of isolation leading to divergence isn't new (just ask Darwin's finches), but these timeframes bring climate and continental geology into the equation.
It leads me to wonder what happens when the sea level rises again and these isolated populations start encountering each other. With complete speciation it's competion time, but with sub-speciation and at least some sexual compatibility, that would lead to hybrids trying out new gene combinations. Has anyone looked at that de-isolation period? Competion (dominance and extiction) vs hybrid vigor (trait combination or sudden emergence of a new species with an "evolutionary leap"). That would be an interesting project!
We kind of did that, right? Homo was wandering and speciating and sub-speciating all over the place. Then they started running into each other and then competing and/or sharing genes. Like I said... fascinating! Thanks.
Speciation among Homo over the last ~800 thousand years is exactly where my mind went. The pulsed climate hypothesis states some similar ideas but not necessarily in terms of isolation. I think this work is interesting if we consider “continental” isolation; sapiens in Africa, Neanderthals in Europe, Denisovans in Asia.
Excellent perspective, thank you!