Genome complexity: new review of epigenetics studies (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, May 17, 2017, 13:48 (2537 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: I don’t think anyone would claim that every instance of speciation was triggered by a global change in the environment. Speciation has to take place in individuals or groups, and individuals and groups live in local environments. It makes perfect sense to me that a change in local conditions might trigger changes in certain organisms, and if they are successful they will flourish and spread. And I still don’t see how conditions and life can “co-evolve” and yet there is no link between speciation and the environment.

DAVID: There is a link in adaptations. We don't know how they might lead to speciation, since there is no Darwin-desired step by step fossil pattern.

As on the “whale” thread, yet again: nobody knows what causes speciation, and we can only offer our hypotheses. However, taking your favourite example of the whale, if a land mammal changed its environment, moved into the water, and became a different species,how can you then claim that there is no link between speciation and the environment?