Abstract
THE differentiation or origin of species depends upon the development of discontinuities or gaps in the variation pattern of Nature. We recognize species not because of the amount of difference between their most divergent individuals, but because of their distinctness from each other, or the breadth of the gap between them. The formation of these gaps between species depends upon the development of some isolating mechanism. Many different kinds of isolating mechanisms are found in Nature. In order to understand the forces which direct evolution, we must solve two major problems. These are first, how isolating mechanisms develop and become established as barriers between species, and second, what relation they have to morphological divergence, or the "descent with modification" of Darwin.
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STEBBINS, G. Role of Isolation in the Differentiation of Plant Species. Nature 155, 150–151 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155150a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155150a0