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Article: SCIENTISTS FIND A POPULATION OF BUTTERFLIES THAT APPEARS TO BE SPLITTING INTO TWO SPECIES
- Article from:
- US Fed News Service, Including US State News
- Article date:
- November 6, 2009
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AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 5 -- The University of Texas issued the following news release:
Breaking up may actually not be hard to do, say scientists who've found a population of tropical butterflies that may be on its way to a split into two distinct species.
The cause of this particular break-up? A shift in wing color and mate preference.
In a paper published this week in the journal Science, the researchers describe the relationship between diverging color patterns in Heliconius butterflies and the long-term divergence of populations into new and distinct species.
"Our paper provides a unique glimpse into the earliest stage of ecological speciation, where natural selection to fit the ...