Annael: Well, I’m not going to retype everything I’ve found (it would take far too long, and some of it may be copyrighted), but after doing a quick web search under “macroevolution” and "speciation", here’s links to the following:<BR><BR>A good description of Micro- vs. Macroevolution, basically concluding that they are the same process, only to different degrees (micro is below the species level, macro is above)<BR><BR>http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/macroevolution.html<BR><BR>Another describing Macroevolution, along with some of the scientific study processes involved<BR><BR>http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/paleonet/paleo21/mevolution.html<BR><BR>A “slide show”, a little simplistic since it seems to be the basis for a lecture<BR><BR>http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~simmons/macroevo/<BR><BR>Another page with a VERY good discussion of theory vs. fact, with some very enlightening quotes on the subject.<BR><BR>http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/evolution-fact.html<BR><BR>A page with some instances of observed speciation (macroevolution). I’m going to copy a number of them for you, with the link to the entire page below it:<BR><BR><i> 5.1 Speciations Involving Polyploidy, Hybridization or Hybridization Followed by Polyploidization. <BR><BR>5.1.1 Plants (See also the discussion in de Wet 1971). <BR>5.1.1.1 Evening Primrose (Oenothera gigas)<BR>While studying the genetics of the evening primrose, Oenothera lamarckiana, de Vries (1905) found an unusual variant among his plants. O. lamarckiana has a chromosome number of 2N = 14. The variant had a chromosome number of 2N = 28. He found that he was unable to breed this variant with O. lamarckiana. He named this new species O. gigas. <BR>5.1.1.2 Kew Primrose (Primula kewensis)<BR>Digby (1912) crossed the primrose species Primula verticillata and P. floribunda to produce a sterile hybrid. Polyploidization occurred in a few of these plants to produce fertile offspring. The new species was named P. kewensis. Newton and Pellew (1929) note that spontaneous hybrids of P. verticillata and P. floribunda set tetraploid seed on at least three occasions. These happened in 1905, 1923 and 1926. <BR>5.1.1.3 Trapopogonan<BR>Owenby (1950) demonstrated that two species in this genus were produced by polyploidization from hybrids. He showed that Tragopogon miscellus found in a colony in Moscow, Idaho was produced by hybridization of T. dubius and T. pratensis. He also showed that T. mirus found in a colony near Pullman, Washington was produced by hybridization of T. dubius and T. porrifolius. Evidence from chloroplast DNA suggests that T. mirus has originated independently by hybridization in eastern Washington and western Idaho at least three times (Soltis and Soltis 1989). The same study also shows multiple origins for T. micellus. <BR>5.1.1.4 Raphanobrassica<BR>The Russian cytologist Karpchenko (1927, 192<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif"border=0> crossed the radish, Raphanus sativus, with the cabbage, Brassica oleracea. Despite the fact that the plants were in different genera, he got a sterile hybrid. Some unreduced gametes were formed in the hybrids. This allowed for the production of seed. Plants grown from the seeds were interfertile with each other. They were not interfertile with either parental species. Unfortunately the new plant (genus Raphanobrassica) had the foliage of a radish and the root of a cabbage. <BR>5.1.1.5 Hemp Nettle (Galeopsis tetrahit)<BR>A species of hemp nettle, Galeopsis tetrahit, was hypothesized to be the result of a natural hybridization of two other species, G. pubescens and G. speciosa (Muntzing 1932). The two species were crossed. The hybrids matched G. tetrahit in both visible features and chromosome morphology. <BR>5.1.1.6 Madia citrigracilis<BR>Along similar lines, Clausen et al. (1945) hypothesized that Madia citrigracilis was a hexaploid hybrid of M. gracilis and M. citriodora As evidence they noted that the species have gametic chromosome numbers of n = 24, 16 and 8 respectively. Crossing M. gracilis and M. citriodora resulted in a highly sterile triploid with n = 24. The chromosomes formed almost no bivalents during meiosis. Artificially doubling the chromosome number using colchecine produced a hexaploid hybrid which closely resembled M. citrigracilis and was fertile. <BR>5.1.1.7 Brassica<BR>Frandsen (1943, 1947) was able to do this same sort of recreation of species in the genus Brassica (cabbage, etc.). His experiments showed that B. carinata (n = 17) may be recreated by hybridizing B. nigra (n = <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif"border=0> and B. oleracea, B. juncea (n = 1<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif"border=0> may be recreated by hybridizing B. nigra and B. campestris (n = 10), and B. napus (n = 19) may be recreated by hybridizing B. oleracea and B. campestris. <BR>5.1.1.8 Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum pedatum)<BR>Rabe and Haufler (1992) found a naturally occurring diploid sporophyte of maidenhair fern which produced unreduced (2N) spores. These spores resulted from a failure of the paired chromosomes to dissociate during the first division of meiosis. The spores germinated normally and grew into diploid gametophytes. These did not appear to produce antheridia. Nonetheless, a subsequent generation of tetraploid sporophytes was produced. When grown in the lab, the tetraploid sporophytes appear to be less vigorous than the normal diploid sporo- phytes. The 4N individuals were found near Baldwin City, Kansas. <BR>5.1.1.9 Woodsia Fern (Woodsia abbeae)<BR>Woodsia abbeae was described as a hybrid of W. cathcariana and W. ilvensis (Butters 1941). Plants of this hybrid normally produce abortive sporangia containing inviable spores. In 1944 Butters found a W. abbeae plant near Grand Portage, Minn. that had one fertile frond (Butters and Tryon 194<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif"border=0>. The apical portion of this frond had fertile sporangia. Spores from this frond germinated and grew into prothallia. About six months after germination sporophytes were produced. They survived for about one year. Based on cytological evidence, Butters and Tryon concluded that the frond that produced the viable spores had gone tetraploid. They made no statement as to whether the sporophytes grown produced viable spores. <BR>5.1.2 Animals Speciation through hybridization and/or polyploidy has long been considered much less important in animals than in plants [[[refs.]]]. A number of reviews suggest that this view may be mistaken. (Lokki and Saura 1980; Bullini and Nascetti 1990; Vrijenhoek 1994). Bullini and Nasceti (1990) review chromosomal and genetic evidence that suggest that speciation through hybridization may occur in a number of insect species, including walking sticks, grasshoppers, blackflies and cucurlionid beetles. Lokki and Saura (1980) discuss the role of polyploidy in insect evolution. Vrijenhoek (1994) reviews the literature on parthenogenesis and hybridogenesis in fish. I will tackle this topic in greater depth in the next version of this document. <BR>5.2 Speciations in Plant Species not Involving Hybridization or Polyploidy <BR>5.2.1 Stephanomeira malheurensis Gottlieb (1973) documented the speciation of Stephanomeira malheurensis. He found a single small population (< 250 plants) among a much larger population (> 25,000 plants) of S. exigua in Harney Co., Oregon. Both species are diploid and have the same number of chromosomes (N = <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif"border=0>. S. exigua is an obligate outcrosser exhibiting sporophytic self-incompatibility. S. malheurensis exhibits no self- incompatibility and self-pollinates. Though the two species look very similar, Gottlieb was able to document morphological differences in five characters plus chromosomal differences. F1 hybrids between the species produces only 50\% of the seeds and 24\% of the pollen that conspecific crosses produced. F2 hybrids showed various developmental abnormalities. <BR>5.2.2 Maize (Zea mays) Pasterniani (1969) produced almost complete reproductive isolation between two varieties of maize. The varieties were distinguishable by seed color, white versus yellow. Other genetic markers allowed him to identify hybrids. The two varieties were planted in a common field. Any plant's nearest neighbors were always plants of the other strain. Selection was applied against hybridization by using only those ears of corn that showed a low degree of hybridi- zation as the source of the next years seed. Only parental type kernels from these ears were planted. The strength of selection was increased each year. In the first year, only ears with less than 30\% intercrossed seed were used. In the fifth year, only ears with less than 1\% intercrossed seed were used. After five years the average percentage of intercrossed matings dropped from 35.8\% to 4.9\% in the white strain and from 46.7\% to 3.4\% in the yellow strain. <BR>5.2.3 Speciation as a Result of Selection for Tolerance to a Toxin: Yellow Monkey Flower (Mimulus guttatus) At reasonably low concentrations, copper is toxic to many plant species. Several plants have been seen to develop a tolerance to this metal (Macnair 1981). Macnair and Christie (1983) used this to examine the genetic basis of a postmating isolating mechanism in yellow monkey flower. When they crossed plants from the copper tolerant "Copperopolis" population with plants from the nontolerant "Cerig" population, they found that many of the hybrids were inviable. During early growth, just after the four leaf stage, the leaves of many of the hybrids turned yellow and became necrotic. Death followed this. This was seen only in hybrids between the two populations. Through mapping studies, the authors were able to show that the copper tolerance gene and the gene responsible for hybrid inviability were either the same gene or were very tightly linked. These results suggest that reproductive isolation may require changes in only a small number of genes. <i><BR><BR>and here is the link for the page<BR><BR>http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-speciation.html<BR><BR><BR>I think that is enough for this post <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0>. If you want more, just let me know and I’ll keep looking <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><BR>