Question

"A researcher claims that the Makira Island and the Santa Ana Island flycatchers are diverging into different species. Identify TWO potential prezygotic barriers that may be contributing to the divergence and speciation of these two populations of birds. Identify ONE piece of evidence that would indicate that speciation has already occurred within the flycatcher populations."

Answer 1

Prezygotic barriers

Explanation:

Two potential prezygotic barriers that may be contributing to the divergence and speciation of these two populations of flycatchers are behavioral isolation and habitat isolation

• A prezygotic reproductive barrier is a mechanism that prevents fertilization from occurring
• Behavioral isolation means many species perform different mating rituals for reproduction,for example mating calls of both flycatchers may be different
• Habitat isolation is a type of prezygotic barrier in which two species that could interbreed because the species live in different areas,here in this case flycatchers are living on two different islands and hence cannot mate which results into divergence of two different species

Evidence that would indicate that speciation has already occurred within the flycatcher populations is geographic patterns which resulted into allopatric speciation

• Flycatchers are isolated from each other by geographical barriers because they are located on two different islands
• As they are geographically isolated from each other speciation which occurs is allopatric