Species Diversity Not Caused By EnvironmentS  Accepted
scientific wisdom holds that new species arise because of
geographic separation - the same bird evolves differently on two
different islands. But a new study overturns this idea,
challenging the importance of environment as a driver of
evolution.  Published this week in Nature, the new study shows
that even when a group of creatures is not separated by mountain
ranges, and isn't forced to find a niche in the ecosystem via
natural selection, new species will evolve over hundreds of
generations. The researchers created a mathematical model of
speciation, when one species evolves into many, which tracks
emergence of species over 2,000 generations. The model was based
on scientific observation of how new species have evolved all
over the Earth.  Species Diversity Not Caused By EnvironmentS
Above, you can see the model, showing how species transform over
time. Each color represents a species. What begins as a uniform
single-color group slowly evolves into sev