Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Single seed conifers

At this time in history, most of the land is present in one large landmass called Gondwanaland.  Conifers spread across it.

But eventually, under the influence of tectonic plate activity, Gondwanaland begins to break up.  This leads to an example of speciation by literally drifting apart.  Some single seeded conifers stay on the northern section, others on the southern.  Inevitably, these identical trees are going to split into two different species, as their continued adaptation to their environment will mean that by the time they meet again, in a few million years, they will no longer be able to fertilise each other.

North?
South?

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