(February 13, 2015 at 1:04 pm)robvalue Wrote: If they can no longer interbreed, they are considered to have speciated.It doesn't mean they can no interbreed because of incompatibility, but because they are isolated from each other.
Are you aware of the time scales were talking about here?
If two forms of human can no longer interbreed then you'd say they have speciated. If not, then they haven't yet. I'm no expert but that's the general gist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciation
Quote:Speciation is the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise. The biologist Orator F. Cook was the first to coin the term 'speciation' for the splitting of lineages or "cladogenesis," as opposed to "anagenesis" or "phyletic evolution" occurring within lineages.[1][2][3] Whether genetic drift is a minor or major contributor to speciation is the subject matter of much ongoing discussion.
There are four geographic modes of speciation in nature, based on the extent to which speciating populations are isolated from one another: allopatric, peripatric, parapatric, and sympatric. Speciation may also be induced artificially, through animal husbandry, agriculture, or laboratory experiments.
It states that speciation can be induced artificially through "animal husbandry" which is selective breeding, so my question still stands.