Hybrid Speciation

[Curtis Clark]

At 11:53 AM 4/17/98 +0000, ROGER HYAM wrote:
>If a cross occures between sister taxa then it suggests that these
>taxa should be considered as a single entity - how could we show that
>these two taxa (OTUs in our analysis) aren't segregates of a larger
>taxon? 'Hybrids' of this type should not be formally recognised.


Even if the hybrids are sterile?

And consider the following case:


A--+
   +--+
B--+  +----
      |
C-----+

By your measure, a hybrid between A and B would demonstrate that they are
conspecific, but a hybrid between A and C, since they are not sister taxa,
would be a hybrid. But if A and B are conspecific, then C is the sister to
the species A+B, so A x C is not a hybrid. Following this method, one could
reduce much of the Orchidaceae to synonymy.


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