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spe·ci·a·tion | \ ˌspē-shē-ˈā-shən 
, -sē- \
, -sē- \Definition of speciation
: the process of biological species formation
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Other Words from speciation
speciate \ ˈspē-shē-ˌāt , -sē- \ intransitive verb
, -sē- \ intransitive verbspeciational \ ˌspē-shē-ˈā-shnəl , -sē- , -shə-nᵊl \ adjective
, -sē- , -shə-nᵊl \ adjectiveExamples of speciation in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web Their analysis suggests that speciation is essentially random.
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Quanta Magazine, "A Surprise for Evolution in Giant Tree of Life," 5 May 2015 And as water froze into glaciers, sea levels dropped, isolating shallow seas and creating niches for speciation.
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Joshua Sokol, Science | AAAS, "Veil of dust from ancient asteroid breakup may have cooled Earth," 18 Sep. 2019 The breakneck pace of that speciation event turned heads both in the scientific community and in the media.
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Quanta Magazine, "New Bird Species Arises From Hybrids, as Scientists Watch," 13 Dec. 2017 By pinpointing many such transfers, then, scientists can sort out the relative order of speciation involved.
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Quanta Magazine, "Chronological Clues to Life’s Early History Lurk in Gene Transfers," 24 Apr. 2018 Instead, Janke said, at least some of the whale speciation has been driven by personal taste.
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Author: Karen Weintraub, Anchorage Daily News, "Baleen whales intermingled as they evolved, and share DNA with distant cousins," 7 Apr. 2018 Some experts think that even today hybrid speciation may be far from rare.
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Jordana Cepelewicz, Washington Post, "When two different types of birds mated, a new species, Big Bird, was born," 6 Mar. 2018 The lab is testing a theory discussed in recent years that postulates such adaptation to new environments drives the process of speciation.
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Cristela Guerra, BostonGlobe.com, "Harvard University has an underground lizard colony," 28 Feb. 2018 Cichlid fishes have undergone a mind-boggling degree of speciation.
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Axel Meyer, Scientific American, "The Extraordinary Evolution of Cichlid Fishes," 23 May 2017
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'speciation.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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The first known use of speciation was in 1906
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