There is variation in a population due to mutation., A barrier (e.g. geographic) isolates two groups of a population and prevents interbreeding., Natural selection acts differently on the two isolated populations, as there are different selective pressures in each environment, such as differences in temperature, predators, and sunlight., Those with favourable alleles specific to each environment survive, and pass the alleles for different favourable traits to their offspring., Over time the gene pools of the two populations come to differ significantly, Due to selection of advantageous alleles and further mutations, so that when members of the different populations are brought together, they can no longer interbreed to produce fertile offspring., The two populations are now two new species, and we say that speciation has occurred..

Year 10 Evolution: Speciation

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