Ring species -- the abridged version
Channel: potholer54
Date: 2011-06-05

Several people asked me to make a video on ring species alone, suitable for viewing by their creationist friends. So here it is.

I've used the example of the greenish warbler, after someone pointed out that the ensatina is not the best example of a ring species. Hybrids of the two end-species in the ensatina ring exist in two locations, whereas there are no hybrids from the two end-species descended from the greenish warbler.

The gap you will see in the orange-colored area covering the obscuratus on the map of Asia (at around 3:00 mins) is caused by human habitation which has eliminated the obscuratus from that particular area.

SOURCES:

"Speciation in the round"
David B. Wake, Nature, 18 Jan 2001

"Phylogeographic breaks without geographic barriers to gene flow"
Darren E. Irwin, Evolution, 2002

"Ring species as bridges between microevolution and speciation"
D .Irwin et al, Genetica, 2001