Date Time
Genomic and epigenomic analyses reveal speciation in mole rat populations without sharp separation
For new species to evolve, conventional wisdom suggests that geographically isolated populations must exist that form separate reproductive communities.
Spalax ehrenbergii | Author: Bassem18 wikimedia
This isolation allows the genomes to slowly diverge and thus form new species. An international research team with participation of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) and the University of Haifa has now reconstructed the first reported case of localspeciation within a common gene pool in subterranean mole rats, a group of species which are rodents. Four out of five mole rat species of the superspecies Spalax ehrenbergi originated due to climate divergence over the past 1.5 million years, regionally across the country, and locally in the Upper Galilee through geological and soil microscale adaptive divergence in the last 228,000 years without chr