I hope John Tory reads this

It seems our understanding about how evolution can occur is changing.  Work published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences (PNAS, tee-hee) has found evidence of sympatric speciation; the separation of a population into different species without the need of a physical, geographic barrier.  

The researchers, led by Canadian scientists at Queen’s University, have found that within five colonies of tropical birds living in the archipelagos where there are two populations with distinct breeding seasons, there is significant genetic variation between the populations and, in two of the colonies they have stopped exchanging genes entirely.  The data the researchers collected indicates at least four of these populations have arisen simply out of the difference in breeding periods. 

Darwin had initially proposed that sympatric speciation could occur, and now here’s the evidence.  Researcher Andrea Smith said “that it’s challenging the idea that you need a geographic barrier for species to arrive.”

It’s a good example of how a scientific theory, such as evolution, can be refined when new evidence is found.