Ecol 21n | Lecture| 2nd Sem.

AY: 2023-2024

Module 2: Interaction of Ecology and Evolution

Lesson 2.2:
Natural Selection and Speciation
Cheryl C. Batistel
Lecturer
 Lesson Overview

Overview
This lesson brings you to the details of the phrase "survival of
the fittest". This refers to the differential success in terms of
survival and reproduction of the members of the population as
affected by their interaction with the environment.

Learning
Outcomes At the end of the lesson, learners are expected to:
1. Explain the theory of natural selection.
2. Distinguish the conditions of natural selection.
3. Determine the factors of speciation.
 Natural Selection

• Process through which populations of living organisms adapt and change

✓ Individuals in a population are naturally variable
✓ Some individuals have traits better suited to the environment than others
✓ These individuals then pass the adaptive traits on to their offspring

• Speciation - one of the processes that drives evolution and helps to explain
the diversity of life on Earth
✓ the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct
species
Natural Selection
 Conditions of Natural Selection

1. Reproduction: Population must reproduce to create a new generation

2. Variation: Individuals within a population have different characteristics/traits (or
phenotypes).
3. Inheritance: Offspring inherit traits from their parents. An offspring does not receive the
same spectra of traits as either parent, but rather a mixture of both parents’ traits.
4. Competition: More offspring are produced than can survive, so offspring with traits
better matched to the environment will survive and reproduce more effectively than
others.

Natural selection states that given these three conditions, a population will accumulate
the traits that enable more successful competition.
 Speciation

The evolutionary process of formation of new

species
What is a species?
1. Biological Species Concept Males of the western meadowlark,
“A group of actually or potentially interbreeding Sturnella neglecta (left) and the eastern
meadowlark Sturnella magna (right)
natural populations which is reproductively
isolated from other such groups”

2. Morphological Species Concept

“A species is a group of individuals or population Two trilobites in the order Phacopidae;
with similar morphological characters” Hollardops mesocristata (left) and
Cheirurus ingricus (right).
The western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) and the eastern meadowlark
(Sturnella magna), respectively inhabit the western and eastern halves of North
America. Despite the fact that their breeding ranges overlap throughout many
upper midwestern states, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri
and Minnesota, the two groups do not interbreed. The courtship songs of the
males of each species are distinctly different and females of each species
respond to the songs of the males of their own species, leading to strong
reproductive isolation between the two groups despite a high degree of similarity
in appearance.

Left: Males of the western

meadowlark, Sturnella neglecta

Right: Eastern meadowlark

Sturnella magna
For this two trilobites, the only evidence that remains of their existence is
fossils; there is no behavioral data on reproductive isolation or connectivity
with other trilobites. Clear morphological differences are obvious. The
fossil on the right has large spines jutting from both its head and rear ends.
Additionally, the spines along the side of the trilobite’s thorax are much
larger and more pronounced in the fossil on the right. These morphological
differences lead us to categorize these fossils as members of different
species.

Two trilobites in the order Phacopidae:

Left: Hollardops mesocristata (left)
Right: Cheirurus ingricus
 Mechanisms of Speciation

1. Abrupt Speciation
✓ Species are often well reproductively isolated; any
chance of hybridization fails to produce hybrids;
may occur by mutation or hybridization
✓ Sudden development of new species that is
reproductively and ecologically isolated from the
parental species
✓ This mechanism operates through individuals and
thus, not a population phenomenon
 Mechanisms of Speciation

2. Gradual Speciation
✓ gradual change over a long period of time, more common in
nature
✓ 2 types
a. Sympatric Speciation
b. Allopatric Speciation
Mechanisms of Speciation
 Mechanisms of Speciation

2. Gradual Speciation
a. Allopatric Speciation/ Geographic
✓ Lineage independence and consequent speciation result from
geographical separation of lineages
✓ Over a period of time, such separation would enable
geographical races to develop and maintain gene combinations
controlling their morphological and physiological characters
▪ Development of reproductive isolation would sooner result to the establishment of
distinct species.

Descendants of an ancestral finch from Ecuador occupied separate islands. Geographic isolation
led to the diversification of the descendants, which developed different beaks that specialize in
eating different food sources.
 Sardinella tawilis

• Sardinella tawilis is endemic to Taal Lake in Batangas

• Tawilis got trapped in Lake Taal after major volcanic eruptions in the 18th
century
• The lake was sealed from its connection to Balayan Bay eventually
leading its waters to become fresh water and the former marine species
trapped within the lake have evolved into a purely freshwater species.
 Mechanisms of Speciation
2. Gradual speciation
b. Sympatric Speciation
✓ No geographic or physical separation of species
✓ The ecological differences in the habitats result in populations which gradually
evolved into new species
✓ Commonly caused by mutation or changes in behavior

American maggot fly hawthorn apple

Midas cichlid (Amphilophus
sp.) in a volcanic crater lake in
Nicaragua is an example of a
species that evolved through
sympatric speciation primary
due to reproductive isolation.
Reproductive Isolating Mechanisms
Reproductive Isolating Mechanisms
 Reproductive Isolating Mechanisms
• Isolation is the key factor preventing
intermingling of distinct species through
prevention of hybridization
• Types:
A. Prezygotic mechanism (operating before
sexual fusion)
I. Pre-pollination mechanisms
1.Geographical isolation - two species
are separated geographically by a gap
larger than their pollen dispersal
 Reproductive Isolating Mechanisms

2. Ecological isolation - two species

occupy the same general area but
occur in different habitats
Flycatcher from North America

3. Seasonal isolation - two species

occur in the same region but flower
in different seasons
Photoperiodism can be defined as the
developmental responses of plants to the
relative lengths of light and dark periods.
 Reproductive Isolating Mechanisms
4. Temporal isolation - two species flower during the
same period but during different times of the day or
in animals, different species tend to have different
breeding seasons.
L. canadensis flowers Lactuca canadensis
in summer while L.
graminifolia flowers
in eraly spring

Spilogale putorius Spilogale gracilis

Eastern spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius) mates in late winter while western Lactuca graminifolia
spotted skunk (Spilogale gracilis) mates in late summer
 Reproductive Isolating Mechanisms
5. Ethological/ Behavioral isolation - two species
have different pollinators and in animals
differences in courtship behavior preventing
mating between individuals of different species

Sula nebouxii (blue-

footed booby bird)
has a very elaborate
mating dance the
males must perform
to woo the female. Ethological isolation in Ophrys apifera,
where the orchids structure mimics that
of a female bee or other pollinator to
attract the male counterparts.
 Reproductive Isolating Mechanisms
6. Mechanical isolation - the incompatibility of sexual organs in animals or
the structural differences in the flower of two species prevent interbreeding

Salvia apiana (white sage) Salvia mellifera (black sage) In some snail species, the direction of shell
Black sage and white sage grow in the same area, but coiling is controlled by a single (maternal
hybrids rarely form because flowers of 2 species have effect) gene. Left-coiling snails cannot mate
become specialized for distinct pollinators. Black sage with right-coiling snails. Such mutations
flowers are pollinated by small bees &white sage could quickly lead to further differentiation
flowers by large bees. and, possibly, speciation.
Dufour's hypothesis - genital armatures act like lock & key prevents
hybridization of individuals from different species

Damselfly males of different species have differently-shaped reproductive organs.

If one species tries to mate with the female of another, their body parts simply do
not fit together. Reproductive organ incompatibility keeps the species
reproductively isolated.
 Reproductive Isolating Mechanisms

B. Post-zygotic Mechanisms (operating after sexual fusion)

1. Seed incompatibility - the zygote or even the

embryo is formed but fails to develop and as
such, a mature seed is not formed

2. Hybrid inviability - mature seed is formed and

germinates but seedling dies

3. Hybrid sterility - hybrid produces abortive

flowers or inviable seeds
 Phylogenetic Tree

• Phylogenetic tree - traditional and convenient way to visually present the evolutionary
relationships of organisms
✓ The organisms are grouped based on shared similar characteristics (e.g., all
organisms possess hair)
✓ Features that are morphologically and genetically similar are referred to as
homologous structures
 How to construct a phylogenetic tree?

• The homologous traits are grouped based on a system called cladistics.

✓ Clade is a group of organisms that share the same features and
descended from a single ancestor.
• A cladogram is generated from the analysis.
✓ Diagram showing evolutionary relationships (Phylogeny) between different
organisms
✓ Uses lines that branch in different directions ending in a specific organism
✓ Branches show places where speciation has occurred, and a new species
has evolved
✓ Shows derived characteristics of organisms
How to construct a phylogenetic tree?

Cladogram of Phylum Chordata:

Each red line indicated a derived
characteristic. The points where the
branches meet are where a
hypothetical common ancestor
existed with the shared/derived
characteristics.
 Fossil

• Fossil - the preserved remains of a dead organism from millions of years ago
✓ Evidence for early forms of life
✓ Studied by scientists to learn how much (or how little) organisms have changed as life
developed on Earth as it provides a snapshot of the past

Image source: Wikimedia Commons Source: https://www.istockphoto.com/illustrations/fossils

 Extinction

• Extinction - established when the last individual of a certain species has

been terminated, the capacity to breed and recover had been lost
✓ Documented mass extinction occurred between the
Cretaceous and Paleocene periods
✓ Occurs when species are diminished because of
environmental forces (habitat fragmentation, global
change, natural disaster, overexploitation of species
for human use) or because of evolutionary changes
in their members (genetic inbreeding,
poor reproduction, decline in population numbers)