Simpatric Speciation

This article caught my eye in the first place because it reminded me of the apple magot fly simpatric speciation that we have studied and understood quite clearly in class. My first response to the whole simpatric and allopatric speciation was clear and it seemed to me that the apple maggot fly speciaton proved this concept. However simpatric speciation with the jays are considerably more unexplanitory, complicated, and as the article indicates, "weird". Katie Langin is the biologist in this article that studies the behaviors of these Island Scrub Jays, which live on Santa Cruz Island. The jays live in seperate places, eat seperate foods, have seperate bills, but are the same species. One "type" of jay lives in oak forests, eat acorns, and have shorter bills. The other kinds of jays live in pine forests, eat pine cones, and have longer bills. The jays are not completly speciated because they mate, however mating is extremely rare. The article explains how allopatric speciation occurs, and shows how explanitory it is, compared to simpatric speciation. It also includes the apple maggot fly …show more content…
I am calling it speciation even though the jays can mate, because they will eventually over evolutionary time become seperate species. The whole begining stages of this speciation is ignored or hypothesized, while the rest of it, such as how they have different beaks (due to what they eat), is explained. What made the jays prefer oak or pine forests? Why did some jays in the first place prefer acorns or pinecones? Due to the birds being so mobile, I dont see how they can be divided so perfectly or how they can be divided into only two species. I would recommend this article to biologists because this is a part of speciation that is yet to be discovered, which is why it is so important. There is something out there, awaiting someone to find it and free it from behind simpatric